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The point can’t be hammered home enough: As annoying as it is to have capitalized letters, numbers and symbols in a random password combination, it’s a much better alternative to having accounts infiltrated by those with malicious intent.
Just in case you’re unsure of what a bad password might be, SlashData released its annual list of worst passwords.
Although the top three worst ones in the list remain unchanged – ”password,” “123456,” and “12345678,” — there are newcomers as well, including “jesus” and “ninja”.
“At this time of year, people enjoy focusing on scary costumes, movies and decorations, but those who have been through it can tell you how terrifying it is to have your identity stolen because of a hacked password,” Morgan Slain, SplashData CEO, said in a statement. “We’re hoping that with more publicity about how risky it is to use weak passwords, more people will start taking simple steps to protect themselves by using stronger passwords and using different passwords for different websites.”
Here’s the full list in order of worst password offender and how its position relates compared to last year:
password Unchanged
123456 Unchanged
12345678 Unchanged
abc123 Up 1
qwerty Down 1
monkey Unchanged
letmein Up 1
dragon Up 2
111111 Up 3
baseball Up 1
iloveyou Up 2
trustno1 Down 3
1234567 Down 6
sunshine Up 1
master Down 1
123123 Up 4
welcome New
shadow Up 1
ashley Down 3
football Up 5
jesus New
michael Up 2
ninja New
mustang New
password1 New
This list was developed from files of stolen passwords posted online by hackers. SplashData suggests if your personal or company passwords include any on this list to change them.
“Even though each year hacking tools get more sophisticated, thieves still tend to prefer easy targets,” Slain said. “Just a little bit more effort in choosing better passwords will go a long way toward making you safer online.”
Check out these 9 tip to protect your online identity, which includes password fortification, here.
Just in case you’re unsure of what a bad password might be, SlashData released its annual list of worst passwords.
Although the top three worst ones in the list remain unchanged – ”password,” “123456,” and “12345678,” — there are newcomers as well, including “jesus” and “ninja”.
“At this time of year, people enjoy focusing on scary costumes, movies and decorations, but those who have been through it can tell you how terrifying it is to have your identity stolen because of a hacked password,” Morgan Slain, SplashData CEO, said in a statement. “We’re hoping that with more publicity about how risky it is to use weak passwords, more people will start taking simple steps to protect themselves by using stronger passwords and using different passwords for different websites.”
Here’s the full list in order of worst password offender and how its position relates compared to last year:
password Unchanged
123456 Unchanged
12345678 Unchanged
abc123 Up 1
qwerty Down 1
monkey Unchanged
letmein Up 1
dragon Up 2
111111 Up 3
baseball Up 1
iloveyou Up 2
trustno1 Down 3
1234567 Down 6
sunshine Up 1
master Down 1
123123 Up 4
welcome New
shadow Up 1
ashley Down 3
football Up 5
jesus New
michael Up 2
ninja New
mustang New
password1 New
This list was developed from files of stolen passwords posted online by hackers. SplashData suggests if your personal or company passwords include any on this list to change them.
“Even though each year hacking tools get more sophisticated, thieves still tend to prefer easy targets,” Slain said. “Just a little bit more effort in choosing better passwords will go a long way toward making you safer online.”
Check out these 9 tip to protect your online identity, which includes password fortification, here.
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