It was the year Star Wars returned to the big screen and predictably, “Star Wars” figured among the worst passwords of 2015.
Every year, password management and applications company SplashData reveals the most vulnerable and the worst passwords. To note a complete lack of imagination, the worst password that do make the list don’t change often from year, to year.
To nobody’s surprise, “123456” and “password” are once again the two most commonly used passwords and have been since the annual list was drawn up since 2011. Other passwords included numerical sequences such as 1234, 12345, 112346 and so on.
The fifth annual report was revealed on Splashdata’s website, compiled from 2 million leaked passwords throughout the duration of the year. Crucially, some of the longer passwords are so easily decipherable that the extra length counts for nothing as a security measure with many characters.
Still the number of data breaches and cyber incidents making rounds in mainstream media can increase cyberawareness. At Lifars, we certainly hope we’re doing our part.
SplashData CEO Morgan Slain explains the findings:
We have seen an effort by many people to be more secure by adding characters to passwords, but if these longer passwords are based on simple patterns – they will put you in just as much risk as having your identity stolen by hackers.
The firm makes three fundamental suggestions to improve password security.
They are:
- Use passwords and passphrases longer than 12 characters and mix them up.
- Avoid reusing the same passwords for multiple websites.
- Use a password manager.
Simple numerical passwords that fall in order make for six of the top 10 passwords on the list. Sports terms such as “football” overtook “baseball” as the most popular sports term.
“starwars,” “solo,” and “princess” were all among the passwords who made it as new entries to this year’s list.
Here are the top 10 worst passwords of 2015:
| Rank | Password | Change from 2014 |
| 1 | 123456 | Unchanged |
| 2 | password | Unchanged |
| 3 | 12345678 | Up 1 |
| 4 | qwerty | Up 1 |
| 5 | 12345 | Down 2 |
| 6 | 123456789 | Unchanged |
| 7 | football | Up 3 |
| 8 | 1234 | Down 1 |
| 9 | 1234567 | Up 2 |
| 10 | baseball | Down 2 |