In a year with several high profile password hacking incidents at major sites including Yahoo, LinkedIn, eHarmony, and Last.fm, SplashData’s list of frequently used passwords clearly shows that many people continue to put themselves at risk by using weak, easily guessable passwords.
- The top three worst passwords for 2012; password, 123456, and 12345678, remain unchanged from last year’s list.
- New entries to this year’s list include; welcome, jesus, ninja, mustang, and password1.
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 is SplashData’s worst 25 passwords of 2012 (including positions relative to 2011)
- 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
SplashData’s report includes the following advice to consumers and businesses:
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 safer online.
The list does include some real doozies, and the fact that the top 3 worst passwords for 2012 are the exact same as last year certainly tends to suggest that, surprisingly, many people are still not listening. Does your password appear in the list?
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Jim, I received a funny email with two older women, and one telling the other she found a way of having the computer tell her, her password, on the rare occasion she would forget it. Get ready for it, her password was “incorrect”, Mindblower! lotfl
LOL. Good one MB!!
Then there was the man who thought he’d be smart and use the word ‘penis’ as his password. He input his new password with his wife looking on and a smirk on his face. The computer came back with the message… “Not long enough!”… his wife cracked up.
Hi Jim,
Whew! None of mine were on the list! Not sure if one or more might be on the next 25. Happy Thanksgiving!
Here’s a simple one that you’ll never forget – an old phone number from your past. Your parent’s when you were a kid? Your grandmother’s? Maybe an ex’s?
The older the better; especially if it has the old lettered exchange >>> MUrry hill5-7578 (for example)