No matter how dumb or smart we are, we’re all dumb about something and there’s a very, very good chance one of your weak spots is the passwords you use. Don’t believe it? Then check out the 2014 edition of Tapscape’s annual look at the worst passwords, which are truly dumb, dumber, dumberest.
“Passwords based on simple patterns on your keyboard remain popular despite how weak they are,” said Morgan Slain, CEO, SplashData. “Any password using numbers alone should be avoided, especially sequences. As more websites require stronger passwords or combinations of letters and numbers, longer keyboard patterns are becoming common passwords, and they are still not secure.”
For example, users should avoid easily recognizable keyboard patterns, like “qwertyuiop” (top row of keys) or “1qaz2wsx” (ie first two columns of numbers and letters).
Without further ado, here are the worst passwords of 2014:
1. 123456 (Unchanged from 2013)
2. password (Unchanged)
3. 12345 (Up 17)
4. 12345678 (Down 1)
5. qwerty (Down 1)
6. 1234567890 (Unchanged)
7. 1234 (Up 9)
8. baseball (New)
9. dragon (New)
10. football (New)
11. 1234567 (Down 4)
12. monkey (Up 5)
13. letmein (Up 1)
14. abc123 (Down 9)
15. 111111 (Down 8)
16. mustang (New)
17. access (New)
18. shadow (Unchanged)
19. master (New)
20. michael (New)
21. superman (New)
22. 696969 (New)
23. 123123 (Down 12)
24. batman (New)
25. trustno1 (Down 1)
More dumberest? There’s a growing trend in dumb passwords for folks to use their favorite sport, unaltered of course, as their password. That said, slightly altering “baseball,” for example, to B8s3b8!! yields an effective password.
Can you spot the differences between the Worst Passwords of 2013 and this year’s listing? Of course you can…
Via PR Web