Five Million Leaked Passwords Reveal The Absolute Worst of 2018
Implied by the analysis of five million passwords for SplashData's list of Worst Passwords of The Year, it doesn't matter how many news alerts we humans hear or read about hackers because most people still will not change their passwords to something harder than "password" or the name of their favorite sports team, to out two of the list of easiest-to-hack offenders.
From our vantage point as security integrator experts, we know that people will still buy certain brands of security cameras for both home and business that are notorious for hacking because they found a good deal online or from some bulk-discounter that carried it with a coupon, and STILL not change the password from default or attempt to set a truly more secure one. We'd like to say we're surprised at the results of SplashData's study, but unfortunately we're not. In the security business, we are all too aware. That said, maybe by spreading the word someone will make this week the week they decide to change their passwords!
But before you do, check out the passwords you definitely should not use and a little side note for each to show if the password is unchanged from last year, up the list, down the list, or new. Are any of your passwords on this list of the top 25?
Rank Top 25 Worst 2018 Passwords
1. 123456 - Unchanged 2. password - Unchanged 3. 123456789 - Up 3 4. 12345678 - Down 1 5. 12345 - Unchanged 6. 111111 - New 7. 1234567 - Up 1 8. sunshine - New 9. qwerty - Down 5 10. iloveyou - Unchanged 11. princess - New 12. admin - Down 1 13. welcome - Down 1 14. 666666 - New
15. abc123 - Unchanged 16. football - Down 7 17. 123123 - Unchanged 18. monkey - Down 5 19. 654321 - New 20. !@#$%^&* - New 21. charlie - New 22. aa123456 - New 23. donald - New 24. password1 - New 25. qwerty123 - New
Shocking, right? Other passwords to avoid, according to SplashData, are celebrity names, sports team names and references, terms from pop culture, and anything with an easy keystroke.
Here are some additional fun facts:
* About 10% of people have actually used at least one of the top 25 passwords listed above at some point as one of their passwords
* Nearly 3% of people have actually used the WORST password on the list of "123456"
So, if these are bad, how does one go about making a good password? SplashData has three suggestions:
1. Use passphrases of twelve characters or more with mixed types of characters. 2. Use a different password for every login. In other words, don't use your online banking password as the password for your email account, and so on. Make each unique. If a hacker gets access to one of your passwords, they won't be able to use it to access other sites or accounts you frequent. 3. Protect your assets and personal identity by using a password manager to organize passwords, generate secure random passwords, and automatically log into websites to take keystroke analysis out of the hacker's bag of tricks.
To encourage people to get more serious about their passwords, Teamsid.com and SplashData.com have joined forces to offer FREE one year subscriptions to password management and business services, in addition to the full list of the 100 worst passwords at https://www.splashdata.com/worstpasswords.
We implore you: please do not purchase easily hacked DIY security cameras, and if you do at least stall the inevitable hacker with a stump-worthy password.
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