Come on people. This has got to stop. Passwords are a huge part of our daily lives. As much as we hate having to remember 500 different passwords, password security is something that really needs to be taken seriously. In SplashData’s annual Worst Password List they clearly show that people still aren’t learning. Once again taking the crown is “123456” followed by “password.” These two have been in the top 2 spots since SplashData’s first Worst Password List in 2011.
If you’re using any of these passwords……..STOP!
1 – 123456 (Unchanged from 2014)
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)
11 – welcome (New)
12 – 1234567890 (New)
13 – abc123 (Up 1)
14 – 111111 (Up 1)
15 – 1qaz2wsx (New)
16 – dragon (Down 7)
17 – master (Up 2)
18 – monkey (Down 6)
19 – letmein (Down 6)
20 – login (New)
21 – princess (New)
22 – qwertyuiop (New)
23 – solo (New)
24 – passw0rd (New)
25 – starwars (New)
The list of passwords is based on more than 2 million leaked passwords in 2015 mostly from North America and Western Europe. Clearly pop culture helps shape what people use for passwords. With the latest Star Wars movie still raking it in at the box office, Star Wars passwords have broken into the top 25.
I know it’s a pain keeping track of your passwords. A while ago I listed LastPass as one of my favorite apps and I still stand by it. It can generate really secure passwords for you and then keep track of them as well. Using the password generator feature, you’ll never use the same password twice. As secure as password managers like LastPass are, there is still potential to be hacked. That being said, I never personally use LastPass for any websites that I am extremely concerned about getting hacked.
Until next year’s list comes out, keep all of this in mind and stop using these passwords!