It has been an open secret for many years that very obvious passwords make you vulnerable to cybercrime. (How bad is you password).
SplashData has published its fifth annual list of the most popular passwords used online in North America and Western Europe during the 2015 found that, “123456” and “Password” came out on top again, compiled from millions of leaked passwords revealed during the year. The report also reveals that sports and film titles are being used as they are easy to remember. Star Wars : The Force Awakens has helped influenced many passwords such as “solo,” “princess” and “starwars.”
The list of passwords based on popularity (2014 positions in brackets):
- 1. 123456 (Unchanged)
- 2. password (Unchanged)
- 3. 12345678 (Up 1)
- 4. qwerty (Up 1)
- 5. 12345 (Down 2)
- 6. 123456789 (Unchanged)
- 7. football (Up 3)
- 8. 1234 (Down 1)
- 9. 1234567 (Up 2)
- 10. baseball (Down 2)
Given this information it is easy to see why 2015 saw a record number of cyber attacks – including hackings and data breaches.
What you need to do:
1. Make password as long as possible (pad with extra characters if necessary).
2. Make it unique for each website (ideally with different username too).
3. Don’t use names or strings of keyboard characters (common passwords from leaked lists will be the first to be tried).
4. Test your password with our Password Assessor.
5. Try our Password Padder to create easy to remember and stronger passwords.
