2015’s Worst Passwords Include Number Sequences, Star Wars References

Hacking, phishing and malware are more prevalent than ever, yet there are still a significant number of Internet users using easy-to-crack passwords.

The top two passwords — 123456 and password — have been on SplashData’s list of the worst and most commonly used passwords since the survey’s inception in 2011.

The fifth annual report — which was compiled from leaked passwords in North America and Western Europe last year — is once again filled with numerical passwords such as 12345678 and 111111. In fact, eight of the most-used 25 passwords are made up of numbers only.

Sports is also a popular password theme as are references to Star Wars.

“We 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 you in just as much risk of having your identity stolen by hackers,” SplashData CEO Morgan Slain said. “As we see on the list, using common sports and pop culture terms is also a bad idea. We hope 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.”

Here’s a list of 2015’s worst passwords.

1. 123456 (unchanged from 2014)
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)

SplashData suggests people avoid using letters or numbers in sequence, for instance using qwertyuiop — the top row of letters on a standard keyboard —is not a good idea. Simple passwords like football or baseball are also too easily guessed as are names of sports teams.

Using personal information like your first name or birthday is also a no-no. Swear words and phrases, hobbies, famous athletes, car brands, and film names are also a bad idea.

SplashData offers the following tips for choosing more secure passwords:

• Use passwords or passphrases of 12 characters or more with mixed types of characters.
• Avoid using the same password over and over again on different websites.
• Use a password manager such as SplashID to organize and protect passwords, generate random passwords, and automatically log into websites.

Jennifer Cowan is the Managing Editor for SiteProNews.

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