The 25 Worst Passwords: Are yours on this list?

By | November 24, 2011
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As more and more of our personal information is being pushed to the cloud, it’s absolutely essential that you re-evaluate your passwords soon. Most people think that the cloud is not secure and the’re partially right. But it’s not because the cloud is not secure, it’s because people insist on using weak passwords and then compound the problem by using the same weak password for all their online accounts.

We thought you’d be interested to know the 25 worst passwords. Sadly these are not only the worst passwords, but commonly used passwords as well.

Here is a list of the 25 worst passwords compiled by SplashData…

“…SplashData created the rankings based on millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers. Here is the complete list:

1. password
2. 123456
3.12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

‘…Hackers can easily break into many accounts just by repeatedly trying common passwords,” Slain says. “Even though people are encouraged to select secure, strong passwords, many people continue to choose weak, easy-to-guess ones, placing themselves at risk from fraud and identity theft…'”

Both of us here at Cloudeight urge you to start using strong passwords right away — and warn you to never use the same password for more than one account. Hackers with sophisticated password cracking tools can guess simple passwords in a fraction of a second. It would take a trillion years though, for a hacker to crack a strong thirteen-character password consisting of random letters, numbers and characters.

Both of us use tools like Roboform and Lastpass to generate and store strong passwords for us. Most people fear if they use a password like 7AsDLY6%PP93MW7 they’ll not be able to remember it – but the truth is you don’t have to. In fact, Lastpass is free and not only remembers passwords and username combinations for you, it will automatically fill in the login information for you as well.

Hackers are not geniuses. It does not take a genius to crack a password such as “password” or “iloveyou”. And whether you like it or not, more and more of your personal information and priceless photos, music and documents are being stored in the cloud. And the weakest security point in the cloud is your password.

Don’t take chances and count on luck to protect you. Update your weak passwords with strong passwords — and never use the same password for more than one account.

If you have not yet chosen a password manager, take a look at LastPass. It’s free and it works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari.

(References http://news.yahoo.com/25-worst-passwords-2011-study-223430003.html )

6 thoughts on “The 25 Worst Passwords: Are yours on this list?

  1. Juel Hilton

    Wise words above, surely peoples imagination is better than the above pass words.
    Things like migrain, blood pressure. cholesterol,virus zapper, anything does, but being too obivous

    Juel

    Reply
  2. Ed Gardner

    I never thought I would see one of my passwords on a hackers list. I will be using my Roboform to set new passwords for me. Here’s another fine mess both of you have saved me from. Thank you so much for everything.

    Reply
  3. Janice M

    I took your advice when you first recommended LastPass; I LOVE IT!! You can’t beat FREE and it’s so easy to set up. Super features and I only have my one, just ONE password to remember! I’m thinking I may have to send those folks at least a small donation from time to time because they’ve placed “armed guards” around my personal online info. Once when there was a “hint” of someone attempting to breach their security, LP first locked up their site and immediately notified me about what was happening.

    I just can’t say enough about how much safer I feel online and how fantastic LastPass is! But, don’t take my word for it, go experience it for yourself. You will never regret it!

    Thanks again TC & EB; you’re always on top of everything!

    Reply
    1. infoave Post author

      Roboform’s web site has tutorials and help pages. We cannot provide help for programs which are not made by Cloudeight. We can’t possibly provide support for the hundreds of programs we recommend and have recommended.

      Reply
  4. AJ

    I thank you for and will review the roboform tutorials. I must admit I am guilty of using the same password repeatedly, though its not on the list its close! I avoided changing them or really allowing ROboform to benefit me because I don’t really know how to change passwords on it and didnt trust it would work so I keep the easy to recall one. Would it be OK to use Lastpass in addition to roboform now since maybe it would be easier to figure out and understand? Can one use two different password managers? I would really like to be safe and use better practices but I am embarrassed to admit I really don’t understand the ins and outs of roboform!

    Reply

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