People are still failing to improve their online security, a new study says, with passwords such as "password" rating among the most commonly used. Source: Supplied
WHAT'S still the most commonly used password? You guessed it; "password", closely followed by "123456".
Consumer and business software developer SplashData conducts the annual review of the most common passwords shows we're still seriously lacking in imagination when it comes to our online security.
Decades of warnings seem to have had no effect.
It seems hackers have it easy.
The revelation comes after a year of security breaches at high-profile organisations such as Yahoo, Linkedin and eHarmony.
What were the hackers after?
Passwords.
Based on SplashData's survey, they needn't have bothered.
"Users of any of these passwords are the most likely to be victims in future breaches," the researchers said.
"Even though each year hacking tools get more sophisticated, thieves still tend to prefer easy targets. Just a little bit more effort in choosing better passwords will go a long way toward making you safer online."
But the news isn't all bad.
Some have been changing their password - to other common alternatives.
"Password1, welcome, jesus, ninja and mustang" have made first-time appearances on this year's list.
SplashData urged people to take passwords seriously.
"Those who have been through it can tell you how terrifying it is to have your identity stolen because of a hacked password,' said SplashData CEO Morgan Slain.
"We're hoping 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."
SplashData's top 25 list was compiled from files containing millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers.
- 1. password (Unchanged)
- 2, 123456 (Unchanged)
- 3. 12345678 (Unchanged)
- 4. abc123 (Up 1)
- 5. qwerty (Down 1)
- 6. monkey (Unchanged)
- 7. letmein (Up 1)
- 8. dragon (Up 2)
- 9. 111111 (Up 3)
- 10. baseball (Up 1)
- 11. iloveyou (Up 2)
- 12. trustno1 (Down 3)
- 13. 1234567 (Down 6)
- 14. sunshine (Up 1)
- 15. master (Down 1)
- 16. 123123 (Up 4)
- 17. welcome (New)
- 18. shadow (Up 1)
- 19. ashley (Down 3)
- 20. football (Up 5)
- 21. jesus (New)
- 22. michael (Up 2)
- 23. ninja (New)
- 24. mustang (New)
- 25. password1 (New)
Source: Splashdata
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