The web’s most popular passwords revealed
The world’s most popular passwords have been revealed – and it’s the predictable ‘password’ that tops the list.
Almost five per cent of computer users chose the simple code, according to a new study revealing the 10,000 most used words to complete the login process.
So with such easy passwords, its time to make sure you improve your remote access users login experience and security by adding the SecurEnvoy tokenless, two factor authentication, method of proving the user is who they say they are!
Other obvious choices include ‘123456’ at Number 2, followed by ‘12345678’, ‘1234’ and ‘qwerty’. Also among them are the pleading-sounding ‘letmein’.
The list compiled by IT security consultant Mark Burnett shows that just 100 passwords make up 40 per cent of those used on the web – giving hackers a pretty easy job.
TOP 30 MOST USED PASSWORDS
1. password16. michael
2. 12345617. shadow
3. 1234567818. master
4. 123419. jennifer
5. qwerty20. 111111
6. 1234521. 2000
7. dragon22. jordan
8. pussy23. superman
9. baseball24. harley
10. football25. 1234567
11. letmein26. f***me
12. monkey27. hunter
13. 69696928. f***you
14. abc12329. trustno1
15. mustang30. ranger
And, astonishingly, only 500 security codes make up 71 per cent of security codes. This is a tiny proportion of the 171,000 words thought to be used in the English language.
Mr Burnett adds: ‘It is important to point out that although the top 10,000 passwords are used by 98.8 per cent of all users, there are 2,342,603 (that’s 99.6 per cent) unique passwords remaining that are in use by only 0.18% of users!
His list comes after work-oriented social network LinkedIn was hacked into and 6.5million passwords were dumped on the web.
Many of the codes revealed that not everyone is entirely happy in their job.
Examples include ‘hopeless,’ ‘killmenow’, ‘iwishiwasdead’, and ‘hatemyjob’.
The 150-million-strong social network is unlike rivals such as Facebook and Twitter in that it is built entirely around work connections – and many are clearly less than happy with how their career is progressing.
The social network confirmed today that it HAD been hacked, saying, ‘We can confirm that some of the passwords that were compromised correspond to LinkedIn accounts.’
The leaked passwords are being hacked one by one by teams of forum users in Russia, and posted in plain text online.
Category: Industry News
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