Worst Passwords of 2015
What were the worst passwords of last year? According to SplashData , a password managing company, the most common passwords were also the ones that were most insecure. At the top of the list were "123456" and "password". Both came in top for the second time in a row.
The company, which has now released the Worst Password List for a few years, used over 2 million passwords that were leaked to them.
6 of the most common passwords only consisted of numbers. Among other passwords that are popular were"qwerty" (the letters are next to each other on the keyboard) , "football" , "welcome" and words from popular films like "starwars".
SplashData says that users have been trying to make passwords longer, but if there is a simple pattern behind it, it doesn't really help. On the other side, only 3% of internet users used the 25 worst passwords. More and more people care about password security.
The company warns that choosing bad passwords endangers your personal data and the risk of someone hacking into your computer rises.
According to Splashdata there are a few things to consider when you choose a password:
- Use a mix of numbers, letters (upper and lower case) and special characters.
- Secure passwords should have a length of at least 12 characters.
- Do not use the same password for all your internet accounts.
- Try using a tool to manage the passwords that you have.
- Do not use birthday dates or words that are recognised easily.
Having good passwords is becoming more and more necessary because cyberattacks are on the rise. Last year almost 500 million data records around the world were hacked.
Internet security experts are calling for a new method to access websites, for example using your mobile phone or another other form of identification.
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- Cyberbullying
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Words
- access = getting into a website
- according to = as said by
- account = you need it when you use certain websites ; you have to log in with a username and a password
- care = here: think about
- common =popular, much-liked
- consider = think about
- consist = to have in them
- cyberattack = trying to harm a computer or a whole network
- data = information
- data records = information stored on a computer
- endanger = put in danger
- hack =to get into a person's computer system illegally and use the information that is there
- identification = document or information that shows who you are
- in a row = one after another, without a pause
- insecure = not safe to use
- keyboard = set of keys on a computer you use to type in information
- leak = to give secret information to someone
- length = how long something is
- lower case = letters that are not written as capitals
- necessary = needed, very important
- pattern = design that is always the same
- recognise = know something because you have seen it before
- release = to give to the public
- security = safety , protection
- tool = software
- upper case = letters written as capitals