With 2014 having passed us by, one would want to believe that the human race has evolved beyond some of the most obvious and ridiculous passwords it could use on its devices and the Internet. Not by a mile apparently. Head on after the jump, to catch a rundown of the 25 most effective passwords for getting hacked.
We’ve entered an age where our phones and computers have developed encrypted protection with advancements in passwords as well, leading malicious hackers to keep busy with developing sophisticated attacks and complex methods to do what they do best. With security measures and hackers in a race to stay a step ahead of each other at every given time, it is only fair that such individuals get to prey on some easy pickings along the way.
What easy pickings? SplashData is well known for pulling together a list of the 25 most commonly and extensively used passwords, where it publishes its findings for each year. It did so in 2013, where 2014 was no exception as well, and shows us which passwords retained their spot compared to last year, and which moved up or down a notch. Looking at the data, at least the top 10 most commonly used passwords are the easy pickings we’re talking about.
A common password is pretty much an oxymoron if you think about it, and in the case of SplashData’s findings, this is just bad. Back in 2013, “123456” for a password was all the rage and was definitely a hit amongst the masses as it topped the charts. This track is undoubtedly a crowd puller and retains its top position in 2014 as well. However, those who found it to be too mainstream went with “12345” and “12345678” to create a league of their own, with “12345” gaining immense popularity, and jumping up seventeen positions to the third place. However, the real work of art is “password”, which retained its second position in 2014.
2014 has seen a host of new passwords popping up, such as superman, batman, master, mustang, dragon, etc. and not that any random person could guess one’s password to be superman or batman, it’s the cult following of passwords that should be of concern to you if you have been cited in this data compiled by SplashData.
Here’s the complete list of passwords that you should avoid at all costs.
1. 123456 (Unchanged)
2. password (Unchanged)
3. 12345 (Up 17)
4. 12345678 (Down 1)
5. qwerty (Down 1)
6. 123456789 (Unchanged)
7. 1234 (Up 9)
8. baseball (New)
9. dragon (New)
10. football (New)
11. 1234567 (Down 4)
12. monkey (Up 5)
13. letmein (Up 1)
14. abc123 (Down 9)
15. 111111 (Down 8)
16.mustang (New)
17. access (New)
18. shadow (Unchanged)
19. master (New)
20. michael (New)
21. superman (New)
22. 696969 (New)
23. 123123 (Down 12)
24. batman (New)
25. trustno1 (Down 1)
(via: Gizmodo)
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