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These are the worst passwords on the web

Best check yours isn't one of them

These are the worst passwords on the web
17 November 2016

How many passwords do you have? Two? Three? Probably just one, right? And if it’s more than one, we’d put substantial money on you forgetting which one you’ve got for each website, always mashing in random efforts until it lets you in or – infuriatingly – blocks you.

Data security firm SplashData has compiled a list of the most commonly used (and thus, least secure) passwords of 2015, compared to those of 2014.

The bad news is that people don't seem to be learning: many of these are repeat offenders from previous years, with the 'top two' remaining the same in the form of '123456' and 'password'. 

You probably don’t need telling, but you should steer away from simple number or keyboard patterns, sport words, birth years and baby names, as well as swear words and phrases, hobbies, famous athletes, car brands and film names. Everything really.  

These are the top 25 offenders:

  1. 123456 (Unchanged)
  2. password (Unchanged)
  3. 12345678 (Up 1)
  4. qwerty (Up 1)
  5. 12345 (Down 2)
  6. 123456789 (Unchanged)
  7. football (Up 3)
  8. 1234 (Down 1)
  9. 1234567 (Up 2)
  10. baseball (Down 2)
  11. welcome (New)
  12. 1234567890 (New)
  13. abc123 (Up 1)
  14. 111111 (Up 1)
  15. 1qaz2wsx (New)
  16. dragon (Down 7)
  17. master (Up 2)
  18. monkey (Down 6)
  19. letmein (Down 6)
  20. login (New)
  21. princess (New)
  22. qwertyuiop (New)
  23. solo (New)
  24. passw0rd (New)
  25. starwars (New)

[via PCWorld]

(Images: Shutterstock)