Worst Passwords of 2013

Mobile phone software company SplashData has released its annual list of the 25 most frequently used online passwords. SplashData is a company that makes software for mobile phones and has been keeping the list for at least three years. The company compiles the annual list by going through the passwords exposed in data breaches during the year and culling out the most popular.

The list was compiled from data dumps of stolen passwords posted online, and the firm says it was especially influenced by the millions of Adobe accounts that were compromised in the fall. Stricture Consulting Group attempted to decrypt the leaked Adobe passwords and released an estimate that almost 2 million of the more than 130 million users affected by the breach appeared to be using "123456" as a password.

Passwords like 'adobe123' and 'photoshop' also make SplashData's top 25 list thanks to the breadth of the Adobe hack.

The list also reveals that people using keys like 'letmein' and 'trustno1' aren't nearly as clever and unique as they might think.

"As always, we hope that with more publicity about how risky it is to use weak passwords, more people will start taking simple steps to protect themselves by using stronger passwords and using different passwords for different websites," CEO Morgan Slain said in a statement.
"Seeing passwords like 'adobe123' and 'photoshop' on this list offers a good reminder not to base your password on the name of the website or application you are accessing," Slain said.

For those who may recognise their own password on the list and are considering upgrading their security, security experts recommend that instead of trying to memorise a random jumble of letters and numbers such as ‘d73h58fjk’ we pick phrase passwords – combinations of known words such as ‘monkeysteeplefacejacket’ that tend to stick in the memory.

The concept was outlined in this well-known XKCD comic and although it has its flaws (for example, if a hacker knew this format was being used they could crack the password quite easily) it certainly beats ‘123456’ – or ‘password’.

To know more about tricks to make strongest password read this

The 25 worst passwords:

1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. 123456789
7. 111111
8. 1234567
9. iloveyou
10. adobe123
11. 123123
12. admin
13. 1234567890
14. letmein
15. photoshop
16. 1234
17. monkey
18. shadow
19. sunshine
20. 12345
21. password1
22. princess
23. azerty
24. trustno1
25. 000000


Source : The Independent