A strong password is often the only thing between a user and a security breach. This is where a good password manager comes in as it can create good, strong passwords for the user. Sadly this knowledge seems of be missing with many users, or perhaps in some cases it is just a matter of being lazy.
Each year a list is issued of the most used passwords, which also translates to the easiest to hack. SplashData. As always, this is a fascinating and scary read.
No change took place in the top two positions, as they are still occupied by “123456” and “password”. New members of the hall of shame this year include “welcome”, “login” and “starwars”, which brought with it “solo” and “princess”.
Even when people attempted to use longer passwords, a trend that is mentioned in the report, the results were less than secure — “qwertyuiop” and “1234567890”, for example.
“We have seen an effort by many people to be more secure by adding characters to passwords, but if these longer passwords are based on simple patterns they will put you in just as much risk of having your identity stolen by hackers”, says Morgan Slain, CEO of SplashData. “As we see on the list, using common sports and pop culture terms is also a bad idea. We hope that with more publicity about how risky it is to use weak passwords, more people will take steps to strengthen their passwords and, most importantly, use different passwords for different websites”.
Mr. Slain can hope all he wants, but this trend is unlikely anywhere close to ending. If you care to read the whole list you can do so here. Hopefully you aren’t using one that you find there.