Security Alert: Celebrity Names and "123456" Remain to be Worst Passwords Used in 2018
Computer and Internet security issues are always in the back of everyone's minds in today's age considering how much of our lives revolve around computer technology and the Internet as a whole. Every day, we all utilize a form of a password, whether it be to simply unlock your smartphone, check your banking account balances, or log into your favorite social media account. On average, according to Security Magazine, the average business user in 2017 had about 191 passwords to juggle. That's about 190 too many for most. Unfortunately, most of those passwords are among the worst possible selections around, many being "123456" or now, popular celebrity names.
This Week in Malware Ep3: Weak Passwords
The year 2018 is about to come to a close, and it has brought about many repeated traditions, many of which are bad traditions when it comes to password usage and the security of online accounts. According to SplashData's top 100 worst passwords of 2018 report, the worst passwords used in 2018 remained to be "123456" for the fifth consecutive year and famous celebrity names have now been added to the list.
Using the password "123456" is a common mistake many make and eventually end up paying dearly for it in the form of a hacker or a nosey perp attempting to login into an account or break into someone's smartphone and cloud account to reveal compromising photos and personal data. By using the password "123456", the world's weakest and worst password to ever use, one is asking for trouble, and that trouble is likely to find them sooner rather than later.
Many different variations of the poor "123456" password ranks among the top for the worst passwords of 2018 in SplashData's report released last week. In the report, celebrity names, or public figures like "Donald Trump", or some variation of his name, also ranked pretty high as a weak password utilized during 2018.
The top 25 worst passwords of 2018 from SplashData's recent findings
- 123456 Unchanged
- password Unchanged
- 123456789 Up 3
- 12345678 Down 1
- 12345 Unchanged
- 111111 New
- 1234567 Up 1
- sunshine New
- qwerty Down 5
- iloveyou Unchanged
- princess New
- admin Down 1
- welcome Down 1
- 666666 New
- abc123 Unchanged
- football Down 7
- 123123 Unchanged
- monkey Down 5
- 654321 New
- !@#$%^&* New
- charlie New
- aa123456 New
- donald New
- password1 New
- qwerty123 New
When it comes to using a weak password, many do it out of laziness or fail to create a complex combination of numbers, letters, and various characters thinking that forming a complex password would not be easy to remember. By SplashData revealing their top 100 list of worst passwords during 2018, they hope to bring awareness to a society who needs to do their part in helping with computer and Internet security woes. Such woes have gone unchecked by a large population and are propagating at an alarming rate.
The task of combating computer and Internet security issues shouldn't always be left in the hands of experts or firms like ours who are deep into battling countless new and emerging malware threats like popular ransomware on a daily basis. We have enough battles to win every day. Until the general public take matters more dangerous when it comes to their passwords, we will continue to witness security and data breaches or infiltrations of online accounts at unprecedented rates. If anything, everyone should take the time out to view the top worst passwords of 2018 and be sure never to use them.