News Are Any of Your Passwords on This List? We Hope Not!
Each year since 2011, password management firm SplashData has released a “Worst Passwords List.” After analyzing more than two million leaked passwords in 2015, the company came up with this list of the 25 worst:
- 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
A few things are notable about the passwords on this list. The top two, “123456” and “password,” are perennial favorites, having remained in these spots for the past five years. People clearly like to use simple numerical passwords; six of the top 10 passwords are comprised solely of numbers.
Are you using any of the passwords above? If so, consider this a friendly reminder to change your passwords now to make them stronger and less likely to be guessed by hackers. While we know the passwords on this list are easy to remember, this convenience is not worth paying the price of becoming an identity theft victim.
To create a strong password, follow these tips:
- Use passwords with 12 characters or more that include uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
- Don’t use recognizable strings of letters or numbers.
- Don’t use a single word.
- Avoid using the same password over and over again on different websites.
You may also want to consider signing up for a password manager service to make using many different (and complicated) passwords less cumbersome. SKT uses KeePass, which is a free password manager that is available to anyone. You can learn more about it at keepass.info.