He may be considered a savior by many people around the world, but today SplashData is showing us that Jesus won’t do much when it comes to protecting you from having your online identities hijacked. The company has released its list of the 25 worst passwords for 2012, and aside from an appearance by one of the most important figures in the Christian religion, there are few new entries on the annual list. Of course, things like “password” and “123456″ rank at the top yet again, so if you’re still using those passwords to secure your online accounts, stop it already.
Every year, SplashData complies a ton of information on the most common passwords by picking through the millions of passwords hackers post to the Internet. In every list, we see the same culprits rank at the top, though 2012′s list has a number of newcomers. As we mentioned earlier, “jesus” is one of these new passwords on the list, as are “ninja,” “mustang,” and “welcome.”
Have a look at the full list of worst passwords below, including their rank for 2012 and any change from last year’s list. It kind of goes without saying, but if you use any of the passwords listed, it’s definitely a good idea to change them as soon as humanly possible.
1. password (Unchanged)
2. 123456 (Unchanged)
3. 12345678 (Unchanged)
4. abc123 (Up 1)
5. qwerty (Down 1)
6. monkey (Unchanged)
7. letmein (Up 1)
8. dragon (Up 2)
9. 111111 (Up 3)
10. baseball (Up 1)
11. iloveyou (Up 2)
12. trustno1 (Down 3)
13. 1234567 (Down 6)
14. sunshine (Up 1)
15. master (Down 1)
16. 123123 (Up 4)
17. welcome (New)
18. shadow (Up 1)
19. ashley (Down 3)
20. football (Up 5)
21. jesus (New)
22. michael (Up 2)
23. ninja (New)
24. mustang (New)
25. password1 (New)
The temptation to go with an easy-to-remember password is there for all of us, but unfortunately that leads to an increased risk of having your online accounts breached – not a good thing if you have a lot of important data (like banking information) you need to keep safe behind these passwords. Also, it’s never a good idea to use the same password across multiple accounts, so start thinking of unique passwords for all of your online identities if you haven’t already. Are you surprised by any of the changes or new additions to this list?
Jesus makes an appearance in SplashData’s 25 worst passwords list is written by SlashGear.
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