A new year and a new list of the 25 most common passwords of 2016 has been compiled and published.
Obviously if you have a password on this list of something very similar, then time to change it everywhere. Better still, use a unique password on every website and system that you use.
The indication of change, is from the 2015 version of the list. So, we can see that 123456 is still the most commonly used password, closely followed by password. This is unchanged from last year and has been very common since the dawn of time (or computer passwords).
You can also see how culture slips into the passwords, sports are common, so are movies and characters in movies. In general, these themes are common in password creation. This list will be used by hackers to try and breach your accounts. They will use this list in this order, why not, as these are the most commonly used passwords. Any obvious sequence on the keyboard is going to be a problem for your security, and the hackers already know them.
To be clear, they don’t sit at the login screen and type them in one at a time, they have bots, software agents or other automated systems that will try logging into a system thousands of times, until successful. This automated system will use different computers all over the world to make the attack, creating a difficult job for the defenders. This is why we no longer recommend passwords for security. If you need a password, then use one of our custom Security Codebooks. There are three versions, each for a different use. Have a look in the Security section and choose the one that works best for you. Try them out with the Security Codebook Free™ and then buy more comprehensive Security Codebooks.
Remember, longer passwords are better, make your password easy for you to remember. If you must, write it down in a secure place. Better to have many passwords written in a book, than one password in your head for everything you do. This is why we created the Security Codebooks. They use the Indiana Jones method, hide a password in with thousands of other passwords and only you know the location in the book of the correct one. You can even write this down in a separate book, so it is a double look up. There is no limit to how many Codebooks you can have in operation. Many companies will use one Security Codebook Infrastructure™ for each item of critical infrastructure equipment, the Codebook is kept in the same and in some cases the lookup code is kept in a separate safe in a sealed envelope, so you need access to both safes to access the equipment.
As with all security, it is only as strong as the weakest link or element in the chain.
The list was originally compiled and published by Teams ID at https://www.teamsid.com/worst-passwords-2016/.
Changed the links for the Security Codebooks to the new and updated Security Codebooks.
DVANA have a clear leadership in security. Contact us today to see how we can secure your business and infrastructure from outside attack and what can be done when the inevitable happens.