By Tobi Schwartz-Cassell
Anything’s gotta be better than 123456, right?
Well, yes. But that would be 1234567, which is in 9th place on SplashData’s “Worst Passwords of 2015” list. It’s nine times better than 123456, which has been number one for two years running.
We all know that a secure password goes a long way in keeping our identity safe. So why, then, do so many people come up with passwords like:
- password (#2)
- passw0rd (#24)
- abc123 (#13)
- 111111 (#14)
- login (#20)
Apparently, a lot of sports fans put their passion into their passwords:
- football (#7)
- baseball (#10)
And there are clearly a lot of Star Wars fans out there:
- starwars (#25)
- solo (#23)
- princess (#21)
But to me, the funniest among the 25 Worst are those that contain keyboard trickery:
- qwerty (#4)
- qwertyuiop (#22)
- and my favorite…1qaz2wsx (which debuted this year at #15)
Another favorite of mine is letmein (#19).
SplashData of Los Gatos, CA compiled this list. The company is a provider of password management apps. Check out their free eBook, “What We Have Learned from Five Years of Studying the Internet’s Most Commonly Used Passwords.”
Morgan Slain, SplashData’s CEO cautions, “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.”
So don’t think 1234567890 is going to help you. It debuted at #12 this year.
SplashData offers these p’word tips:
- Use passwords or passphrases of 12 characters or more with mixed types of characters
- Avoid using the same password over and over again on different websites
So Keep Calm…and use at least one capital letter.
♥,
PS: As many of you know, I’ve started to work out at Cherry Hill Health and Racquet Club to strengthen my core and other areas. One of the main reasons I need to do this is because of osteoporosis in my spine. I’ll be providing updates of my progress as I go along, and I’m happy to say that in my second week, I’m able to take to the treadmill at a faster pace and a higher incline than when I began. It’s only up by a bit, but progress is progress!