Jimmy Kimmel did a segment the other night in which he asked people on the street how they choose their passwords. Many of them use simple tricks, such as a name of a pet and then a birthdate. The interviewer was clever enough to get these people to actually reveal their passwords on national television and YouTube.
The lack of password protection and security is quite common in today’s Internet landscape. Despite all of the cyberattacks, hackings and security infiltration’s, consumers still utilize very elementary passwords, including “123456,” “abc123” and “qwerty,” and this is causing a headache for the tech industry.
On Monday, SplashData released its annual list of the worst passwords. Many of the passwords included on the list have been showcased before, most of them multiple times, which suggests individuals aren’t taking their password security seriously.
The repeat offenders consist of “123456” and “password,” but there were other easy-to-hack passwords that usually don’t make their claim to fame. Some of these are “batman,” “iloveyou,” “696969” and “dragon.” A lot of the passwords on the list were popular children’s names, sports teams and vulgar terms.
Here’s the list:
- 123456
2. password
3. 12345
4. 12345678
5. qwerty
6. 123456789
7. 1234
8. baseball
9. dragon
10. football
11. 1234567
12. monkey
13. letmein
14. abc123
15. 111111
16. mustang
17. access
18. shadow
19. master
20. michael
21. superman
22. 696969
23. 123123
24. batman
25. trustno1
Security experts have put forward a number of tips on how to choose the best password. One of the most secure ways is to choose a word or a name but include capitals, symbols and numbers. Security expert Bruce Schneier told Time magazine: “Come up with an entire phrase that’s easy for you to remember, and then use the first instance of each letter, number and symbol from each word in the phrase, keeping punctuation intact as well.”
Whether it’s laziness or indifference to the fact that their passwords aren’t the beacons of security is unknown. However, maintaining a complex password can help protect one’s personal information and prevent it from being given to cyber criminals.
