'Password' & 'Dragon' Among Worst Passwords Still Being Used Online -- Did Yours Make The List?
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – It's a list that will have many people laughing, but also have a few people running to their computers to update their flimsy security.
A security services firm has released their annual report on the worst passwords still being used by people online -- and yes, "password" is still a bad password.
Despite countless reports on data breaches and hackers – covering everything from stolen pin numbers to taking over a Staten Island family's home security cameras – the firm says online consumers are still opting for basic, easy to remember words to secure their accounts.
There's just one problem – they're easy for the crooks stealing your information too!
SplashData's research, released on Wednesday, found that "123456" and "qwerty" are still in the Top 5 worst passwords still being used year after year.
Here's a look at the full 2019 list (compared to their rank last year):
- 123456 (rank unchanged from 2018)
- 123456789 (up 1)
- qwerty (Up 6)
- password (Down 2)
- 1234567 (Up 2)
- 12345678 (Down 2)
- 12345 (Down 2)
- iloveyou (Up 2)
- 111111 (Down 3)
- 123123 (Up 7)
SplashData estimates three percent of people online have used the worst password possible to secure their accounts.
And despite 30 years worth of "Spaceballs" luggage jokes, the firm says "12345" is still in the Top 10 rankings for worst ways to protect your online data.
"Our hope by publishing this list each year is to convince people to take steps to protect themselves online, and we think these and other efforts are finally starting to pay off," SplashData CEO Morgan Slain said.
"We can tell that over the years people have begun moving toward more complex passwords, though they are still not going far enough as hackers can figure out simple alphanumeric patterns."
Here's the rest of SplashData's list for this year's worst passwords:
- abc123 (Up 4)
- qwerty123 (Up 13)
- 1q2w3e4r (New)
- admin (Down 2)
- qwertyuiop (New)
- 654321 (Up 3)
- 555555 (New)
- lovely (New)
- 7777777 (New)
- welcome (Down 7)
- 888888 (New)
- princess (Down 11)
- dragon (New)
- password1 (Unchanged)
- 123qwe (New)
Security experts recommend using pass phrases with at least 12 characters and to also mix up your characters -- between letters, numbers, and symbols.
They also urge people to have a different password for each login, so if one account is breached by a hacker it won't affect the rest of your online activity.
