It’s probably no surprise that ‘password’ isn’t the cleverest password to choose for, say, your online banking. But if you thought ‘Jesus’ would save you from being hacked, think again.
SplashData has released its list of the year’s worst passwords, and while the top three – ‘password, ‘123456’ and ‘12345678’ remain unchanged, there are a number of new entries on the list.
These include the brilliant ‘password1’ – that’ll fool them – along with ‘welcome’, ‘ninja’, ‘mustang’ and, of course, ‘jesus’. Others have shot up the list in the last year, including ‘123123’, ‘football’ and ‘11111’.
“Those who have been through it can tell you how terrifying it is to have your identity stolen because of a hacked password,” says 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.”
The list was compiled from files containing millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers.
“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,” says Slain.
“It just takes a few extra moments to make a password better. If you get started now and make it a resolution to keep it up, your life online will be safer and more secure in 2013.”
