Although the tech world is always changing, one thing remains the same: A lot of people use terrible passwords. New data posted on USENET security newsgroups on the most common internet passwords is out, and it shows who is the most at risk for a security breach.
Even though each year hacking tools get more sophisticated, thieves still tend to prefer easy targets. Just a little bit more effort in choosing better passwords will go a long way toward making you more secure online.
Here’s the top 25 “Worst Passwords of 2012,” including their current ranking and any change from the 2011 list:
1. password (Unchanged)
2, 123456 (Unchanged)
3. 12345678 (Unchanged)
4. abc123 (up 1)
5. qwerty (down 1)
6. monkey (unchanged)
7. letmein (up 1)
8. dragon (up 2)
9. 111111 (up 3)
10. baseball (up 1)
11. iloveyou (up 2)
12. trustno1 (down 3)
13. 1234567 (down 6)
14. sunshine (up 1)
15. master (down 1)
16. 123123 (up 4)
17. welcome (new)
18. shadow (up 1)
19. ashley (down 3)
20. football (up 5)
21. jesus (new)
22. michael (up 2)
23. ninja (new)
24. mustang (new)
25. password1 (new)
The info comes from SplashData, which makes password management applications. The company’s top 25 list of the “scariest” passwords was released with Halloween as a peg, but there’s no treats here for anyone, and possibly some nasty tricks. SplashData says hacking tools are more sophisticated than ever, but hackers will still seek out the easiest targets, like weak passwords.
Security experts suggest picking long passwords (the longer, the better) that include as many different characters as possible while excluding anything that can be personally linked, such as birthdates or names of relatives. Choosing passwords that include words found in common dictionaries is also discouraged.
