When “Most Popular” is Not a Good Thing

Read Time:1 Minute, 9 Second

By SplashData.com, Special for US Daily Review.

If you’re one of those people who thought it was clever to use “password” as your password, it’s time to wisen up and make a change. Switching the “o” to a zero to make it “passw0rd”? Not much better. Both are on the list of the 25 most common passwords used on the Internet this year, according to SplashData, a well-known provider of password management applications.

Other common passwords include simple numerical choices like “123456,” common names like “ashley” and “michael,” and patterns based on the layout of the keyboard like “qwerty” and “qazwsx.”  There are also some minor mysteries, like the unusual popularity of “monkey” and “shadow.” With an increasing number of sites requiring more complex passwords, some letter and number combinations like “abc123” and “trustno1” are being used more often.

In an effort to encourage adoption of stronger passwords, SplashData, a leading provider of password software for more than 10 years, today released its “25 Worst Passwords of the Year” list for 2011. According to SplashData, the most common passwords on the web are:

1. password   10. dragon   19. shadow  
2. 123456   11. baseball   20. 123123  
3. 12345678   12. 111111   21. 654321  
4. qwerty   13. iloveyou   22. superman  
5. abc123   14. master   23. qazwsx  
6. monkey   15. sunshine   24. michael  
7. 1234567   16. ashley   25. football  
8. letmein   17.
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %
Videos