Here’s a pro tip: If your password is “password,” it’s probably time to change it.
SplashData, a company that offers a “complete password management and security solution,” culled from data stolen and posted online by hackers some of the most awesomely bad (and yet commonly used) passwords of all time. And while the research is for 2011, this isn’t the first such list–if you’ve seen one of these before, you’ll probably notice several culprits reappearing from years past.
The 25 most popular passwords in SplashData’s 2011 list:
password
123456
12345678
qwerty
abc123
monkey
1234567
letmein
trustno1
dragon
baseball
111111
iloveyou
master
sunshine
ashley
bailey
passw0rd
shadow
123123
654321
superman
qazwsx
michael
Football
Let’s go over what makes a good password again: You’ll want to include different types of characters, numbers and special characters in conjunction with each other. The longer your magic passphrase is, the better. Separate words with spaces if possible (underscores work, too). And while this ought to be a no-brainer, don’t use the same password for everything.
Last but not least? Your dog’s name’s a definite no-no…unless, of course, it happens to be Mr8@Mxyzptlk76%5.