Despite all the warnings and horror stories about fraud and identity theft, many people ignore the risks associated with using words like “password” as their password — usually with the underlying thought: “Why would someone want to steal my password?”
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Well, when it comes to scammers and thieves, you are no different than the next person.
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Scammers are looking for any information they can get from you — and a new report from security firm Keeper reveals just how insecure many people’s accounts really are.
After analyzing 10 million leaked passwords, the study found that 17% of people are using “123456” to secure their accounts — which, of course, is about as far from secure as you can get.
A few other alarming trends:
- 4 of the top 10 passwords are 6 characters or shorter.
- Many users are using passwords like “1q2w3e4r” and “123qwe” — combinations that “dictionary-based password crackers” can hack in just a few seconds.
- “1234567,” “12345678,” “qwerty,” and “111111” also made the list.
The analysis found that more than 50% of people are using the top 25 most common passwords.
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Bottom line: If your passwords include any of the words below, in any combination, it’s time to change them!
Top 25 most common passwords
- 123456
- 123456789
- qwerty
- 12345678
- 111111
- 1234567890
- 1234567
- password
- 123123
- 987654321
- qwertyuiop
- mynoob
- 123321
- 666666
- 18atcskd2w
- 7777777
- 1q2w3e4r
- 654321
- 555555
- 3rjs1la7qe
- 1q2w3e4r5t
- 123qwe
- zxcvbnm
- 1q2w3e
A report released last year by SplashData revealed similar results regarding just how susceptible people are to hackers.
The “worst” passwords list combined compilations of passwords that were leaked during 2015, in order to find the most popular and widely-used security phrases.
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So, again, this means if any of your passwords are on this list, you’re making it a whole lot easier for thieves to guess their way into your accounts.
Worst passwords
- 123456
- password
- 12345678
- qwerty
- 12345
- 123456789
- football
- 1234
- 1234567
- baseball
- welcome
- 1234567890
- abc123
- 111111
- 1qaz2wsx
- dragon
- master
- monkey
- letmein
- login
- princess
- qwertyuiop
- solo
- passw0rd
- starwars