User a super hard password to guess, not a superheroDark Helmit warned viewers way back in 1987 that 1-2-3-4-5 is the kind of combination only an idiot would have on his luggage, yet nearly three decades later, it ranks number three on SplashData's list of the 25 worst passwords of 2014, which takes into account the most commonly used combinations from 3.3 million leaked passwords last year. In 2013, it ranked number 20.
It's hard to know what to make of SplashData's list. On one hand, our knee-jerk reaction is to feel depressed that so many people are using such easy-to-guess passwords to lock down their accounts, especially with how hyperactive the hacking community has become. But at the same time, we wonder how many of these passwords represent one-time use accounts, where a user is simply registering with a bogus email and password combination to access an article.
Either way, there's reason to be somewhat optimistic.
"The good news is that it appears that more people are moving away from using these passwords. In 2014, the top 25 passwords represented about 2.2 percent of passwords exposed. While still frightening, that's the lowest percentage of people using the most common passwords I have seen in recent studies," noted Mark Burnett, online security expert and author of Perfect Passwords.
Here's a look at the full list:
- 123456 (unchanged from 2013)
- password (unchanged)
- 12345 (up 17)
- 12345678 (down 1)
- qwerty (down 1)
- 1234567890 (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)
- mustang (new)
- access (new)
- shadow (unchanged)
- master (new)
- michael (new)
- superman (new)
- 696969 (new)
- 123123 (down 12)
- batman (new)
- trustno1 (down 1)
There are quite a few new entries to the list, including a pair of comic book superheroes -- Batman and Superman, both DC Comics fare.
SplashData says many of the remaining passwords in the top 100 list include swear words and phrases, hobbies, famous athletes, car brands, and film names.
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