When “Most Popular” is Not a Good Thing

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: