Batman, Superman make it to the worst password list, 123456 retains top spot

Were you one of the 3.3 million people whose passwords were leaked last year? Reasons could have been choosing “123456” as your password or “password”, well, as your password. A yearly list released by SplashData revealed the worst passwords used in 2014.

In its fourth list, the SplashData reveals the passwords- “123456” and “password”- have retained the two top spots for fourth consecutive year. While, the top 10 of the list are almost same as the previous year, yet new ones as “baseball”, “dragon”, and “football” made it to the worst password list too.

However, reviewing the list it becomes apparent that people tried to be more creative this year but in a collective manner, making the words common. The list of 25 worst passwords includes new entries as “superman”, “batman”, and random words from English dictionary as “access” and “master”.

Nine out of the top 25 most used passwords are numerical sequences that are too easy to be guessed, for example- 12345, 1234, 111111, etc.

“Any password using numbers alone should be avoided, especially sequences. As more websites require stronger passwords or combinations of letters and numbers, longer keyboard patterns are becoming common passwords, and they are still not secure,” said Morgan Slain, ceo of SplashData.

SplashData’s list of frequently used passwords shows that many people continue to put themselves at risk by using weak, easily guessable passwords.

“The good news is that it appears that more people are moving away from using these passwords. In 2014, the top 25 passwords represented about 2.2% of passwords exposed. While still frightening, that’s the lowest percentage of people using the most common passwords I have seen in recent studies,” said online security expert, Mark Burnett.

The report also provides tips to improve online security. It advises to abstain from using the most common words or phrases as favorite sports, partner’s name, date of birth, or a numerical sequence for password.

Slain says, “As always, we hope that with more publicity about how risky it is to use weak passwords, more people will start taking simple steps to protect themselves by using stronger passwords and using different passwords for different websites.”

The top 25 worst passwords are-

1. 123456

2. password

3. 12345

4. 12345678

5. qwerty

6. 123456789

7. 1234

8. baseball

9. dragon

10. football

11. 1234567

12. monkey

13. letmein

14. abc123

15. 111111

16. mustang

17. access

18. shadow

19. master

20. michael

21. superman

22. 696969

23. 123123

24. batman

25. trustno1

SOURCE:-intoday