In the digital age we live in, it’s paramount that we unsure that our important data is as secure as possible. Each year, SplashData compile a list that shows the most popular passwords used over the last year.
The data is taken from the millions of passwords that have been stolen over the last 12 months by hackers from various sources and made public throughout the year.
The top 25 password are listed below:
- 123456 (Unchanged)
- password (Unchanged)
- 12345 (Up 17)
- 12345678 (Down 1)
- qwerty (Down 1)
- 123456789 (Unchanged)
- 1234 (Up 9)
- baseball (New
- dragon (New)
- football (New)
- 1234567 (Down 4)
- monkey (Up 5)
- letmein (Up 1)
- abc123 (Down 9)
- 111111 (Down 8)
16. mustang (New)
- access (New)
- shadow (Unchanged)
- master (New)
- michael (New)
- superman (New)
- 696969 (New)
- 123123 (Down 12)
- batman (New)
- trustno1 (Down 1)
To be honest, I’m quite surprised that a lot of these passwords are still being used online considering the effort that a lot of companies go to ensure your important data is safe.
Hopefully none of your passwords are listed above, if they are, you may need to look at some of the recommended good practices to apply when choosing a password, such as:
- Not using a word contained in the dictionary; it is fairly trivial for programs to crack these sorts of passwords. This also applies for names too.
- At the same time, it’s also not recommended to use common misspellings of dictionary words either; such as replacing “I” with “1”.
- Always use at least 12 characters in your password – remember, the longer the password, the more difficult it is to crack.
- Use multiple character sets; such as,!, @, #, etc.
These are just a few good practices to apply when choosing a password, but remember there are many more methods available to ensure that your private and valuable data is as secure as it can be.