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Presenting the 20 dumbest Ashley Madison passwords, in no particular order

Ashley Madison users have many priorities. Apparently, an airtight password is not one of them.
By Leslie Gornstein, Contributing Editor
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1 of 20 Splash News/Corbis

Ladies and gentlemen, these are some stunningly bad passwords

So there was this data breach recently, against a website called Ashley Madison. Perhaps you've heard of it.

That bit of hackery exposed thousands of people-not only as would-be cheaters, but also as people with truly terrible passwords.

For example: According to a detailed accounting published by Ars Technica, the word "ashley" has been used at least 8,793 times by Ashley Madison users.

Maybe the site just has a lot of Full House fans. (After all, Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen did make for a cute little sitcom baby.)

Or maybe Ashley Madison customers literally punched in the first word they saw when it came time to choose a password.

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2 of 20 Shelly Perry/iStock

They're No. 1 ... to somebody

The password 111111 has been used more than 7,048 times by Ashley Madison folks. Maybe the subscribers chose it on purpose, or maybe they all have cats who like to sit on the "1" key. Happens to us all the time.

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3 of 20 iStock by Getty Images

The most obvious password on Earth

As if "password" weren't obvsies enough, the word "cheater" has been used as a password by Ashley Madison users nearly 4,000 times.

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4 of 20 CTR Photos/iStock

Why, hello there

More than 4,425 times, Ashley Madison users have chosen "hello" as their passwords. It's nice to know they're polite.

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5 of 20 Catherine Lane

They're all heroes inside

Everybody loves Superman, including Ashley Madison folk, who have used the Man of Steel's name as a password at least 5,023 times.

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6 of 20 iStock by Getty Images

We don't want to know

We have no idea why the password "monkey" has been used more than 2,000 times by Ashley Madison users. And something tells us that we're better off not knowing.

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7 of 20 iStock by Getty Images

All the NSFW words

At least 31,000 times, Ashley Madison users turned to taboo words for their passwords, including p***y, f**kme, f**kyou and a**hole. A**hole alone has been used at least 5,052 times.

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8 of 20 iStock by Getty Images

Better than gatherers, I guess

"Hunter" has been used for password purposes at least 3,869 times.

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9 of 20 iStock by Getty Images

Oh, come on, people. Seriously?

Password. Really. The word "password." It was used-as a password-by Ashley Madison subscribers at least 39,448 times.

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10 of 20 Lisa F. Young/iStock

They really love sports

Ashley Madison subscribers used "football" more than 7,800 times. Something tells us they're really, really into fantasy leagues.

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11 of 20 iStock by Getty Images

And still more sports

"Soccer" has been used as an Ashley Madison password 3,936 times, at least.

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12 of 20 Ljupco Smokovski

Did we mention sports?

If Ashley Madison subscribers are any indication, baseball may be the preferred sport of extramarital cheaters: the word has been used 7,710 times.

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13 of 20 iStock by Getty Images

Another password inspiration: This guy?

The word "madison" has been used by Ashley Madison users 5,219 times and counting.

The reason, of course, is simple: Ashley Madison people are really big fans of our Founding Fathers, such as James Madison here.

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14 of 20 iStock

It came from your keyboard

If you're one of those people who tends to stare at a keyboard until inspiration comes, you are not alone. Go ahead. Look down at your keyboard right now. More than 20,000 times, the top left string of letters inspired Ashley Madison users: QWERTY was their password.

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15 of 20 iStock by Getty Images

We hear you knockin'

Apparently, more than a few Ashley Madison subscribers are just not down with the whole password concept. They impatiently chose "letmein" as a password at least 4,140 times.

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16 of 20 Photographer: Andrey Popov

More sports

Perhaps fearing that "football" would be too easy to guess, Ashley Madison users have turned to "hockey" as a password at least 4,191 times.

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17 of 20 iStock

Stealth approach

Maybe they thought that a sneaky word would keep them from getting caught by suspicious spouses; "shadow" has been used by Ashley Madison subscribers at least 3,831 times.

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18 of 20 iStock

Now that's just giving up completely

Perhaps they were all following the news of the Greek financial crisis. Or perhaps they just didn't feel like thinking up a real password.

Whatever the reason, Ashley Madison users have relied on the world "default" as a password no fewer than 34,275 times.

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19 of 20 iStock

The horse is not impressed

Possibly inspired by midlife crisis muscle cars, Ashley Madison subscribers have chosen "mustang" as a password at least 4,865 times.

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20 of 20 iStock

The laziest passwords of all time

Network security people keep on saying it, and the rest of the world just keeps on doing it anyway: Using strings of sequential numbers as a password.

The top two most-used password combinations by Ashley-Madison users? The infinitely easy-to-hack 123456 and 12345. Combined, those number strings have been used a whopping 168,963 times...and counting.

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