It’s Official – We Are All Still Rubbish At Passwords

New research has found that, despite repeated warnings and cyber attacks, many of us are still failing to ensure we have secure online passwords.

SplashData’s fifth annual list of the most popular passwords used online in North America and Western Europe during 2015 found that, once again, “123456” and “Password” came out on top as the people’s choice.

The report, which was compiled from millions of leaked passwords revealed during the year, also revealed that sports and popular culture such as films are increasingly influencing password choices, as many consumers appear to use the first thing that pops into their heads.

Easy

Overall, the ten most popular password were:

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)

The list also suggested that the release of the new Star Wars film has helped influenced many people’s choice of passwords, as “solo,” “princess” and “starwars” all found their way into the top 25.

Eight of the top fifteen entries were made up entirely of numerical characters, although the list hardly makes for complex reading.

The need for strong passwords has greatly increased in recent times, as criminals look to gain entry via any means necessary, which is hardly helped by having easy-to-guess passwords shared across multiple accounts.

A recent Kaspersky study also found that nearly half of Internet users regularly put themselves at risk of having their online accounts hacked by telling other people their passwords.

44 percent of users admitted to having shared their passwords with somebody or leaving them visible for people to see, opening them up to serious risk of compromise or attack, with a third (33 percent) freely sharing passwords with family members, one in ten (11 percent) shared passwords with friends, and six percent did so with colleagues.

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