Year in and year out web users are reminded of the danger of using poor passwords for their online accounts – and 2015 was no different. From the Ashley Madison hacking scandal, to a data leak affecting children’s electronic toy company VTech, there were plenty of examples as to why password security is important.
But if the following list is any indication, people still aren’t getting the message.
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SplashData, a password management application company, has released its annual list of the 25 worst passwords of the year. The list is compiled from files containing over two million leaked passwords from 2015.
For the fourth year in a row “123456’ and “password” topped the list.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens inspired some new choices – including, “starwars,” “solo” and “princess.”
One of the below entries even looks like it should be secure, “1qaz2wsx.” Take a close look at your keyboard, however, and you’ll notice the combination is based on the first two columns of keys.
Here’s the full list:
- 123456
- password
- 12345678
- qwerty
- 12345
- 123456789
- football
- 1234
- 1234567
- baseball
- welcome
- 1234567890
- abc123
- 111111
- 1qaz2wsx
- dragon
- master
- monkey
- letmein
- login
- princess
- qwertyuiop
- solo
- passw0rd
- starwars
Tips for creating secure passwords
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If any of your passwords made this list, you might want to consider some of the following advice.
Stay away from easy-to-guess passwords like “123456″ or “password” as well as easy to guess identifiers, like your dog’s name.
Numbers included in a password should never be something easy to guess based on the user. That means your age, the current year, or your address are not good choices. Similarly, the longer the password the better.
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Passwords that use up to 10 uppercase and lowercase letters mixed with numbers are proven to be more secure – despite being hard to remember.
One tip is to construct a password from a sentence, mix in a few uppercase letters and a number – for example, “There is no place like home,” would become “tiNOplh62.”
And remember, try not to use the same password for any two accounts.
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