SplashData has released its fifth annual ‘Worst Passwords List’, which once again highlights the unsecure passwords used by internet users the world over.
On this year’s list, we see the emergence of longer passwords, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re any more secure. Take for example the absolute worst password, which is ‘123456’ and a newcomer to the list ‘1234567890’ – as you can see, longer, but by no means more secure.
The top two passwords on the list remain unchanged from last year, in fact, whilst they’ve swapped rankings, they have otherwise been the same since 2011.
The longer passwords show that internet users are at least being a little more cautious, but they are so ineffectual that they may as well be ‘1234 let the hackers in the door’ (hey, that’s not such a bad password!).
According to CEO of SplashData Morgan Slain, “We have seen an effort by many people to be more secure by adding characters to passwords, but if these longer passwords are based on simple patterns [it] will put you [at] just as much risk of having your identity stolen by hackers”.
SplashData offers these three simple tips to help protect you:
- use passwords or passphrases of twelve or more letters with mixed types of characters
- avoid using the same password over and over again on different websites
- use a password manager such as TeamID to organise and protect your passwords, generate random passwords and automatically log in to websites.
Anyway, here are the top 25 worst passwords of 2015. Here’s hoping that none of you use any them.
1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. 12345
6. 123456789
7. football
8. 1234
9. 1234567
10. baseball
11. welcome
12. 1234567890
13. abc123
14. 111111
15. 1qaz2wsx
16. dragon
17. master
18. monkey
19. letmein
20. login
21. princess
22. qwertyuiop
23. solo
24. passw0rd
25. starwars
What’s the worst password you have used? Have you used any of these passwords? If so, you need to change them. So check out our data security article for some handy hints on choosing better passwords.
Read more at www.teamsid.com
Related articles:
Best password managers
How to make a strong password
Five tips to protect online privacy
