25 Worst Passwords of the Year

‘Password’ remains the most commonly used password by casual users unaware of the fact this is a very common and global choice, making it so easy for hackers to gain access to their digital life and wreck havoc to it. In an effort to encourage adoption of stronger passwords, released its “25 Worst Passwords of the Year” list for 2011. According to SplashData, the most common passwords on the web are:

1.	password		10.	dragon		19.	shadow
2.	123456		11.	baseball		20.	123123
3.	12345678		12.	111111		21.	654321
4.	qwerty		13.	iloveyou		22.	superman
5.	abc123		14.	master		23.	qazwsx
6.	monkey		15.	sunshine		24.	michael
7.	1234567		16.	ashley		25.	football
8.	letmein		17.	bailey
9.	trustno1		18.	passw0rd

This list was compiled from files containing millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers. If you are using any of the passwords in the list, you must change that immediately. SplashData suggests making passwords more secure with these tips:

1. Use passwords of eight characters or more with mixed types of characters.
   One way to create longer, more secure passwords that are easy to remember is to use short words with spaces or other characters separating them. For example, “eat cake at 8!” or “car_park_city?”
2. Avoid using the same username/password combination for multiple websites. 
   Especially risky is using the same password for entertainment sites that you do for online email, social networking, and financial services. Use different passwords for each new website or service you sign up for.
3. Having trouble remembering all those different passwords?
   Try using a password manager application that organizes and protects passwords and can automatically log you into websites. There are numerous applications available, and you can start with SplashID Safe, which has a 10 year history and over 1 million users and available for Windows and Mac as well as smartphones and tablet devices.

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