The year 2013 saw a change in the chart highlighting the worst passwords from a security standpoint, as ‘123456’ knocked ‘password’ from the top spot on the Worst Passwords of 2013 list.
According to the new figures released by SplashData in its Worst Passwords of 2013, expert warnings highlighting the vulnerability of people’s information by using ‘password’ as their password had little real change in mentality as the figures show a switch to a similarly easy ‘123456’.
SplashData’s top 25 list was compiled from files containing millions of stolen passwords posted online during the previous year.
With more and more websites, email and other services requiring passwords, many people find the easy passwords more memorable but leave themselves open to serious risks.
Growth of numbers
SplashData highlighted Adobe’s security breach last year, which saw thousands of users’ passwords distributed online by security consulting firm Stricture Consulting Group as a significant influence on this year’s list.
“Seeing passwords like ‘adobe123’ and ‘photoshop’ on this list offers a good reminder not to base your password on the name of the website or application you are accessing,” says Morgan Slain, CEO of SplashData.
Other passwords in the top 5 include ‘qwerty’, and ‘abc123’ have only moved up and down one place, showing that many people still use the same type of passwords despite warnings.
Two passwords have moved up five places since 2012 and are only slight variations on each other: ‘1234567’ and ‘123123’.
‘trustno1’ and ‘monkey’ has proven to have fallen out of popularity, falling 12 and 11 places, respectively.
The highest new entry to the list was ‘123456789’ which was the sixth worst password in 2013.
Password hacker image via Shutterstock
