Passwords and personal information being compromised has been all over the news in 2017. The biggest breach was the Equifax data breach which could have easily been prevented had the proper updates been made. One thing you may not know is, it was discovered an Equifax database used 'admin' for the login and password. This is likely the second dumbest password a company involved in storing personal data could use...the first being 'password'.
Every year, service provider SplashData publishes a list of the most frequently hacked passwords of that year. Even though most companies have 12 character, 1 Caps, 1 number, 1 special character and a sacrifice of your first child as password requirements, millions and millions of people still rely on birthdays, zip codes and anniversaries for their passwords.
Taking data from 5 million hijacked passwords, SplashData created a list of the most hacked passwords. Some obvious ones made this list (123123, Password,) some were a bit unexpected such as "monkey and "whatever." Also, if you're a Star Wars fan or Game of Thrones fan don't use "Starwars" or "dragons" as a password...
"Hackers are using common terms from pop culture and sports to break into accounts online because they know many people are using those easy to remember words" says Morgan Slain, CEO of SplashData.
Here are the top 25:
- 1. 123456 (unchanged... for the fourth year in a row)
- 2. Password (unchanged)
- 3. 12345678 (up 1 from last year)
- 4. qwerty (up 2 from last year)
- 5. 12345 (down 2 from last year)
- 6. 123456789 (new)
- 7. letmein (new)
- 8. 1234567 (unchanged)
- 9. football (down 4 from last year)
- 10. iloveyou (new)
- 11. admin (up 4 from last year)
- 12. welcome (unchanged)
- 13. monkey (new)
- 14. login (down 3)
- 15. abc123 (down 1)
- 16. starwars (new)
- 17. 123123 (new)
- 18. dragon (up 1 from last year)
- 19. passw0rd (down 1 from last year)
- 20. master (up 1 from last year)
- 21. hello (new)
- 22. freedom (new)
- 23. whatever (new)
- 24. qazwsx (new)
- 25. trustno1 (new)
If your password is on this list, go change it now. When creating a new one, remember, length is more important than content. Experts suggest using four unrelated words. The phrase "Correct Horse Battery Staple" would take over 500 years to crack. This website will approximate how long it will take a computer to hack your password: How Secure is My Password
