A survey listing the worst passwords of 2013 makes funny reading.
The word “password” has been ousted as the most popular, to be replaced by “123456”.
Other very common and easy to guess passwords that are worth avoiding include “qwerty”, “abc123” and “111111”.
The survey was carried out by SplashData as a warning to people about the dangers of protecting yourself online.
A spokesperson for the company said: “”As always, we hope that with more publicity about how risky it is to use weak passwords, more people will start taking simple steps to protect themselves by using stronger passwords and using different passwords for different websites.”
If you are using any of the top 25 passwords on its list, you are advised to change them immediately.
Advice on creating more secure passwords includes trying to make up completely random combinations of words, rather than common phrases, so instead of something like “iloveyou” you should use “loveleafspin”. You should also avoid using the same password for more than one application or website.
If, like me, you get in a total tangle trying to remember all of your passwords and pin numbers, you might also need to find an ingenious way of recording or memorising them all.
I’ve had a cashpoint card sitting in my wallet for months that I have been unable to use because I can’t remember the number – fortunately it is not for my main account! I even hid the number somewhere in case I ever forgot it, but obviously hid it so well I can’t find it.
http://splashdata.com/press/worstpasswords2013.htm