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Topic: Security

25 most-used passwords revealed: Is yours one of them?

Summary: Unfortunately, too many people are still relying on "password" as the key to their login information, based on a new report.

Rachel King

By for Zero Day |

After it was discovered that more than six million LinkedIn passwords had been leaked as well as many at Last.fm and eHarmony, no one has stopped talking about password and passcode security.

That's actually a good thing because it's an incredibly important topic that many Internet users don't take seriously.

Case in point, take a look at this new report from IT security consultant Mark Burnett. Self-described as someone who "loves writing about passwords," Burnett has compiled a list of the "top 500 worst (aka most common) passwords" based on a variety of methods he has detailed on his blog.

Here are the top 25, as extracted by antivirus solution provider ESET. Is yours one of them? If so, it's safe to say you should consider changing it to something stronger immediately.

  1. password
  2. 123456
  3. 12345678
  4. 1234
  5. qwerty
  6. 12345
  7. dragon
  8. pussy
  9. baseball
  10. football
  11. letmein
  12. monkey
  13. 696969
  14. abc123
  15. mustang
  16. michael
  17. shadow
  18. master
  19. jennifer
  20. 111111
  21. 2000
  22. jordan
  23. superman
  24. harley
  25. 1234567

via ESET

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Topic: Security

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Talkback

71 comments
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  • How incredibly unoriginal. Reading that list was so depressing.

    Although I don't practice the following practice, I wonder just how many passwords are a variation on someone's driver license?
    kenosha77a
    Reply 2 Votes

    • and i wonder

      how many people know their driver license number by heart. i, for one, do not.
      ForeverSPb
      Reply 2 Votes

      • DL number

        I do.
        gtvr
        Reply 2 Votes

        • Are you sure ?

          Sounds like you are an Alfa Romeo owner.
          Brian Bath
          Reply Vote

      • Drivers License

        I do.
        ancillaDomini
        Reply 1 Vote

      • DL number

        I do. And i bet you remember your SSN well if you went to college.
        jokila
        Reply 2 Votes

        • What's college have to do with it?

          You should REALLY know you SSN for myriad reasons. Driver's license number, not so much. But then you should carry your license, while you shouldn't carry your Social Security Card.
          APPLEJACKSON
          Reply Vote

        • DL Number

          you're dating yourself! they don't use SSN as student id's anymore :-P
          Steve Newman
          Reply Vote

          • SSN

            Sadly, a lot of universities still do.
            Garth Sanders
            Reply Vote

      • DL number

        I do.
        rjt@...
        Reply 2 Votes

      • Driver's license

        I know mine from the days when you had to write it when making payment by check at a retailer. And know my social security number from having to write in on time sheets. Ok, I feel old now, thanks.
        lmcahill
        Reply Vote

      • DL Number....

        I definitely know my license number, and my SSN, and my Employee Number, and my College ID number, and my credit card numbers, and even my VIN number.... Knowing these numbers is very important if anything is ever taken from you.....
        Tiffaney DeAmicis
        Reply Vote

        • DL NUMBER

          Numbers make the World go Round.
          Jeff Ming
          Reply Vote

        • You've memorized your car's VIN number???

          I call complete and total BS.
          Media Whore
          Reply Vote

      • DL AND Social Security Numbers, plus passport number

        I do. As well as every phone number, land and cell, I've ever had. plus the license plate numbers from my last 3 cars.

        Not remembering your DL number at least is just plain laziness.
        digital riverrat
        Reply Vote

    • That's a good thing

      That actually wouldn't be a bad one, unless someone:
      a) stole your wallet, and
      b) was also a hacker interested in accessing your accounts, and
      c) had reason to suspect your DL# was something you'd use for a password, and
      d) they knew an account you used AND email used and/or your login name

      Sounds pretty secure as is, actually.

      And, if you did something as simple as throwing your favorite number at the beginning or end, you'd have an incredibly secure password, AND a quick reference/reminder in your wallet.
      Not too shabby. I should do that, since you mention it. Good idea.
      geolemon
      Reply 1 Vote

  • Bullet proof

    Mine is Vietnamese slang, misspelled and backwards. Crack that one!
    duxboy
    Reply 4 Votes

    • brute force maybe

      If it's short, doesn't mix capital letters, digits or other printable characters, brute force is relatively easy (on good hardware and with rainbow tables), say for 6-chars long there are 26^6=308915776 possible (multiply that by 64 when both cases are used)
      eulampius
      Reply 1 Vote

      • most sites won't accept really good passwords

        like
        "Go ahead, try to guess my password"

        How many combinations can you get using all characters available on a keyboard including spaces, with a 64 character limit?
        john-whorfin
        Reply 4 Votes

      • Mine is a sentence

        Containing 6 words, spaces Capitalization, punctuation, and a number, or two, just to make it interesting. It's easy to remember but should be hard to crack.
        Jumpin Jack Flash
        Reply 3 Votes
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