SplashData recently released its Worst Passwords of 2014 list. This includes the most common passwords used by people on the Internet. By that we mean the passwords that you shouldn’t be using at all because if you use them, there is a big chance of your identities being stolen or being hacked. More than 3.3 million passwords that were leaked last 2014 were compiled and analyzed. Of the millions of passwords, “123456” and “password” are the top two most commonly used.
These two have been the most popular for the past years. You would think people should be smart enough not to use the two but apparently, millions still use them. I can understand why and how but really, people should learn to be more careful this time after all the news of information being leaked and important accounts being hacked. Data of passwords analyzed were mostly from Western Europe and North America. Not included in the accounts analyzed were from Russia.
Also included in the Top 10 list were 12345, 12345678, qwerty, 123456789, 1234, baseball, dragon, and football. Personally, I don’t remember ever using any of the passwords except for 1234 but I make sure that I quickly change it to something more unique. Some new passwords appeared on the list like “batman” and “696969′. Password “iloveyou” which was part of the Top 25 the previous year has been dropped off the new list. (So I guess people don’t like saying it anymore eh?)
The Worst Passwords of 2014 list only shows that people do not think much about security and they put themselves at risk. The passwords are guessable and very weak because anyone can just think of them. SplashData CEO Morgan Slain suggested that passwords must not be in sequences so people won’t easily guess them. He also suggested not to use a favorite sport, favorite team, your birthday, and common names as password because these are some of the terms more commonly used.
Are you still gonna use 123456? Naaah, please change your password now.
SOURCE: SplashData
Doesn’t matter; Two-Factor Authent for life, baby.