40 
Though I had hoped that we, as people, would have improved our passwords by now, it turns out that we, as people, are still unimaginative and so very lazy. Just take a look at the most popular (read: the worst) passwords of 2012. They’re terribly predictable.
The rankings were created by SplashData who gathered the data from the millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers in 2012 and ranked them in order of popularity. It’s all similar to year’s past but we’ve got some new additions at the end of the list in Jesus and password1. Yay for religion and online services demanding you add a number to your password! I just want to see the day where password is unseated. Here’s the full list:
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)
Are you surprised that something didn’t make the cut? [PR Web via Mashable, Image Credit: Isak55/Shutterstock]
The Most Popular Password is Still... Password
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where’s the standard Password123?!
Wow, a non-Apple article!
What’s depressing about this list is that some of the really awful ones have actually gone up in the rankings. Particularly ’111111′ – how stupid can people be?
Very.
I realised this many years ago, and my realisation has been affirmed many, many times. I currently suspect that the majority of the population the world over has sub-normal intellect; however the definition “sub-normal” will thus have to be revised before long.
Yea, most people have stupidly easy passwords, as you can see above. People also change their pin codes to simple one’s so their minds can remember a simple number like 2580 (one line down the number pad), I just use the one that came with it, it is only 4 numbers and once you have done it 3 or more times, surely you will remember the pattern of the numbers more than anything.
But yes, most people have sub-normal intellect, I blame shit like Facebook and the absolute crap TV that is on for kids, in technology terms this is bad, that’s why windows 8 looks like it’s been made for the stupid, because it is.
Surely if the majority have sub-normal intellect then it just becomes normal? Not that I’m denying that it’s probably true, just an observation.
Absolutely, hence my comment about revising the definition “sub-normal”.
So the combination is one, one, one, one, one? That’s the stupidest password I’ve ever heard in my life! That’s the kinda thing an idiot would have on his luggage!
Thank goodness “mhallifawas” isn’t up there – I’d have changed it then.
trustno1
at least i don’t have to change mine from supergiantcockman69
I still refuse to believe that people use these passwords. I know the computer passwords for most of my friends and family and none of them have anything so stupid…. Well there are a lot of daughter’s names as passwords but that’s mostly it.
Don’t be too surprised. People have multiple passwords for multiple websites, domain logons, work-based applications, etc etc. Particularly for less-used sites, people tend to choose passwords that are easy to remember.
I personally ascribe to the method of choosing a pre-determined sequence of letters which follows an acronym or abbreviation of the website name, and then a couple of symbols. Works perfectly.
that’s a good idea. I currently have about a dozen random character strings in my memory – it’s horrible when I can’t remember which one I used for a site.
Do these surveys ever take into account that some people don’t care about password security on some sites. Imagine this situation. Someone who has never visited Giz UK gets a link to the site as a result of a Google search. After reading the article they see an opinion in the comments that is SO WRONG that it cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged. So they create an account purely to respond to that comment and only that. Are they going to give a toss for their passwords security? There are plenty of other types of sites that require an account for various reasons but no other information and no validation of the e-mail you give. If you are there for a one time only visit why bother thinking up something more original than password?
Yep, I have the same simple password for a few sites. If someone can get in then by all means post something pretending to be me on a forum that I rarely frequent.
Ah, but how can I be sure that’s you saying that?
I agree this is probably quite a likely cause that hasn’t been considered. For places where I either don’t trust the site to keep my details safe or I don’t intend to use it again (I’m only signing up for an offer, for example) there’s no need to use a complex password.
I guess lots of people are quite naive and do use simple passwords, though.
This was my first thought. Also I think the source of the passwords has to be taken into account. As a rule the sites with less security and so are more likely to get hacked are (with some notable exceptions) those where secure passwords are less of an imperative.
I read an article recently that said having complicated passwords written down was more secure then memorising simpler ones.
they all seem a bit too polite and clean. Am i the only one who uses swear words and obscenities?
F**k no!
surely just joining two of these together would make a much stronger password – e.g. ninjabaseball, or monkeyfootball – why are people so blasé about their passwords, I just don’t get it.
my password for the email gungho@hotmail.com is i ‘lovemyself’ im surprised not to see this up there! i mean who’s stupid enough to use any of those passwords. people have no safety concerns these days..
Just for a laugh I went to try and sign in, but it required an “are you a robot?” verification. Clearly a high amount of people actually believed that to be your password….
sometimes I choose to have a different password on a site because of how I perceive its vulnerability (is it likely to have security against attacks and is the admin likely to be trustworthy). when I’m just on a random Minecraft fansite then I treat it with a lot more trepidation than larger sites like Gizmodo or Facebook or Wikipedia.
Personally I’m surprised pa55w0rd didn’t make the list.