Online security remains a fantasy as 'worst passwords of 2015' illustrates

[Shawn Knight]

Password security has never been a strong suit among the general population. With much of our social and personal lives now playing out online, you'd think that people would be interested in protecting their digital lives at all costs. In reality, that's little more than wishful thinking.

SplashData has compiled a list of the 25 most popular passwords of 2015 and the results are pretty embarrassing. The complete list is as follows.

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)
11. welcome (New)
12. 1234567890 (New)
13. abc123 (Up 1)
14. 111111 (Up 1)
15. 1qaz2wsx (New)
16. dragon (Down 7)
17. master (Up 2)
18. monkey (Down 6)
19. letmein (Down 6)
20. login (New)
21. princess (New)
22. qwertyuiop (New)
23. solo (New)
24. passw0rd (New)
25. starwars (New)

Predictably, "123456" and "password" once again top the list. Despite the fact that some longer passwords like "1qaz2wsx" (the first columns of main keys on a standard keyboard) and "qwertyuiop" (top row of letters on a standard keyboard) made the list for the first time, they don't offer much security.

Morgan Slain, CEO of SplashData, said they have seen an effort by many people to be more secure by adding characters to passwords, but if these longer passwords are based on simple patterns, they will put users in just as much risk of having their identity stolen by hackers.

Curiously enough, Star Wars had a heavy influence over password selection as "starwars," "solo," and "princess" showed up on 2015's list for the first time.

Slain hopes that with more publicity about how risky it is to use weak passwords, more people will take steps to strengthen their passwords and, most importantly, use different passwords for different websites.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/63519-online-security-remains-fantasy-worst-passwords-2015-illustrates.html

 

[Uncle Al]

I am extremely thankful for so many that leave themselves exposed to all the hackers. Hopefully they will be so busy with that pile of nonsense that they will continue to pass me by!

 

[Sphynx]

Password security has never been a strong suit among the general population.

But then again, common sense has never been a strong suit among the general population.

 

[Puiu]

And then they blame the company for getting hacked.

 

[3volv3d]

You gotta be a bit of a simpleton to be scratching your head over xmas thinking of a new password, and you come up with starwars.

But who gives up their passwords so easily ? You say hackers. But I feel with how easy these passwords are, they may have just been asked in an email or on the street "whats your password" and they gave them up.

And again, are these forum passwords ? Where are you going to get a user list so easily, more so than one of those PBB forum type things with the big list of usernames of those just reg'd and those online now. And then you just use some brute force password shizay to get in. Which will be easy as, because who cares about a forum password, they are meant to be easy and carefree so they have no tie to your banking password.

Just sayin this article could be meh, "Forum passwords still easy - oh wait they are meant to be".

 

[cliffordcooley]

I still think these publications are BS, because they go against the very nature of having a password. What would be the point in having a password, if some publisher can verify what you entered?

 

[Emexrulsier]

I still think these publications are BS, because they go against the very nature of having a password. What would be the point in having a password, if some publisher can verify what you entered?

I was thinking the exact same thing. If companies are able to reverse engineer the supposed encryption used to store your password then it is all pointless.

 

[Bubbajim]

I could be wrong, but I think that these lists are compiled from the nefarious lists of stolen passwords that appear in the deeper corners of the web. So while I'm sure there are tons of people who do use such silly passwords, I think it's more telling that these are the most easily stolen passwords. It's unsurprising, really. I'd think it's no coincidence that the kind of person who thinks that "password" is a good password has their login details jacked...

 

[Emexrulsier]

You gotta be a bit of a simpleton to be scratching .

The fact baseball is in that list answers your question...

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

What happened to "iloveyou"? Has that fallen out of favor?

 

[Daithi]

I wonder how many of them are throwaway accounts though, seeing as every bloody site wants to know your family history these days.

I think I've logged in as djdfndjfb@kfdjf.com from dfjdnfj sdjnsjf fjndj albania more times than I've used my actual usernames.

 

[Uncle Al]

What happened to "iloveyou"? Has that fallen out of favor?

Naaaaa ..... it's an election year. That is one phrase we won't be hearing for a LONG time ......

 

[Nick_Knac]

But then again, common sense has never been a strong suit among the general population.[/QUOTE]

LOL, common sense used to be a fact, now it's an oxymoron