Every year, SplashData complies a list of the millions of stolen passwords made public throughout the last twelve months, and sorts them by popularity. Results from 2016 (below) are based on more than 2 million leaked passwords and highlights one of the largest problems in online security: weak, easy to guess passwords. Yes, “123456″ and “password” are still in the list. As we continue to move our lives online, it’s time for everyone to get serious about creating strong passwords.
- 123456 (Unchanged)
- password (Unchanged)
- 12345678 (Up 1)
- qwerty (Up 1)
- 12345 (Down 2)
- 123456789 (Unchanged)
- football (Up 3)
- 1234 (Down 1)
- 1234567 (Up 2)
- baseball (Down 2)
- welcome (New)
- 1234567890 (New)
- abc123 (Up 1)
- 111111 (Up 1)
- 1qaz2wsx (New)
- dragon (Down 7)
- master (Up 2)
- monkey (Down 6)
- letmein (Down 6)
- login (New)
- princess (New)
- qwertyuiop (New)
- solo (New)
- passw0rd (New)
- starwars (New)
So how do we create strong passwords that are harder to crack? Common sense certainly plays a leading role, but here are some quick guidelines for stronger passwords.