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"Why did I think 123456789 was a good password?"
# Security
If you're using one of these passwords, you're in serious trouble
Although it’s not too late to change it to something better.
IF YOU HAPPEN to use 123456 as your password, you may want to change it now.
SplashData has released its annual list of the worst passwords out there, based on files containing over 3.3 million leaked passwords in 2014, and compared to last year, not a lot has changed.
Some of the worst ones only use numbers, five of the top ten worst passwords were variations of the 123456 kind, while others were more predictable with password, qwerty, and football doing the rounds.
With the numerous security issues that happened last year with Sony, eBay and other companies, people may be feeling a little anxious about whether their accounts are protected.
Most compromises happen because of poor passwords like the ones below so you really have no excuse to be using them unless you really want someone to access your info easily.
1) 123456
2) password
3) 12345
4) 12345678
5) qwerty
6) 123456789
7) 1234
8) baseball
9) dragon
10) football
11) 1234567
12) monkey
13) letmein
14) abc123
15) 111111
16) mustang
17) access
18) shadow
19) master
20) michael
21) superman
22) 696969
23) 123123
24) batman
25) trustno1
So if you have a password (or passwords) that are similar to the ones above, what should you do?
The first thing is to change it immediately to something more complex. Use phrases, include different characters (capital letters, symbols, etc.) and don’t settle for the minimum requirements.
If you have numerous accounts, it’s really better to use a password manager like 1Password, LastPass or KeePass to keep all of your passwords secure. The benefit to using these is you can make your passwords as complex as possible, but only need to remember one to access the password manager.
It’s also recommended that you activate two-step verification as a way of adding extra security to your account. This requires you to use a random password sent to your phone as well to access your account on top of the usual username/password requirements.
It may take a few minutes, but better safe than sorry.
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