Here's the eighth annual list of the top 25 most commonly used passwords in a year, as evaluated by SplashData, along with where they compare to last year's top 25. 1. 123456 (Unchanged) 2. password (Unchanged) 3. 123456789 (Up 3) 4. 12345678 (Down 1) 5. 12345 (Unchanged) 6. 111111 (New) 7. 1234567 (Up 1) 8. sunshine (New) 9. qwerty (Down 5) 10. iloveyou (Unchanged) 11. princess (New) 12. admin (Down 1) 13. welcome (Down 1) 14. 666666 (New) 15. abc123 (Unchanged) 16. football (Down 7) 17. 123123 (Unchanged) 18. monkey (Down 5) 19. 654321 (New) 20. !@#$%^&* (New) 21. charlie (New) 22. aa123456 (New) 23. donald (New) 24. password1 (New) 25. qwerty123 (New)
I’m actually surprised 111111 wasn’t on the list last year. I get donald, but any idea where charlie comes from? (Assuming it’s not just from a bunch of people named Charlie, of course.)
54321 was not an option for me. By the way, most password have to include special symbols, capital letters and small letters. But Nr. 20 is too strange for me. For all the log-ins everywhere I wrote my passwords down and hid the paper on a secret place. You shouldn't become demented, though....
I don’t use and never have used any of the passwords listed. I have a handful of obscure books that I use to help generate reasonably safe passwords. For example I might use page 44 of a book, I usually choose the same number line, and the initials of the first 5 words in that line. If a word is capitalise I keep the capital. If I was using my version of ‘The Hunter’ by Janet Leigh (not one of the books I use), I might choose page 85 and generated the password from the line......to Tasmania. “Safe from nuclear.......and that would generate the password 85tTSfn and I would record it in my notebook as TH85.
The password manager I use - 1Password - is one of the most massively useful apps I've ever bought. I highly recommend it. All you actually need to remember is the 'master password' that unlocks it all (which you should commit to memory - don't ever write it down). This app remembers all of your passwords, helps you generate new ones, and can even fill them automatically in whatever browser you use. Plus it can keep your data in sync across all of your devices - computer, tablet, smartphone, whatever. And it's protected by military-grade encryption - it would literally take a million years to break.
I did an experiment with students where was able to access accounts with 'guessed' p/w/ Got 3 out of 10; not a bad pass rate for non-hacker.
See, that's why password managers are a good idea. When all of your passwords are streams of unintelligible gibberish, they can't be guessed, and you can't be tricked into giving them up. The most secure passwords are ones that you don't know.
When I worked at a place that required passwords be changed each month (yes, it was a massive pain in the arse), I hit on a reasonably obscure word, put '01' on the end, and amended it as needed. Was up to '22' when I left.
12345 is so 1987. Spaceballs anyone? People should get with the times and make it 67890. It's the password everyone's using.
GRC generates passwords that are supposedly very difficult to break https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm
Once upon a time, back in the 1970s, I used to be able to use CTRL+key combinations in passwords (on a DEC10 IIRC). Nowadays, I'm often restricted to alphanumeric plus perhaps a small selection of special characters and sometimes all alphabetic characters are mapped to either upper or lower case. Why the regression over time? Why is there no support for CTRL+key and ALT+key combinations nowadays?
It's funny. For years, special characters could never be used. Now, maybe half the sites I visit that use passwords require special characters while many still prohibit them. It's hard to remember which ones I used the $ at the end. Thank goodness for my browser remembering the damn things, but it sucks when I clear the cache or need to reset them all.
Sometimes the cache is cleared without doing it. After an update. Then I have to enter it manually. It sucks.
I've not used any of the ones listed, but my particular whinge is to do with one particular one I have to use. It doesn't accept special characters, doesn't matter if it's upper or lower case and can be no longer or shorter than eight characters - We do have to change it every six weeks though.