The internet requires passwords; it comes with the territory. To do anything fun in this digital wonderland you must sign up to websites, and to protect your accounts you need passwords.
This is all fine and dandy, of course, but the trouble is when you can’t think of a sufficiently complicated yet easy-to-remember password.
Lots of people choose the easy route with ‘password’, ‘abc123’, and ‘qwerty’ as their virtual padlocks, but then they wonder why their accounts have been hacked.
Check out the list of Splashdata’s 25 most common passwords, and if you spot yours in there, perhaps you should think about changing it.
- password
- 123456
- 12345678
- qwerty
- abc123
- monkey
- 1234567
- letmein
- trustno1
- dragon
- baseball
- 1111111
- Iloveyou
- master
- sunshine
- ashley
- bailey
- passw0rd
- shadow
- 123123
- 654321
- superman
- qazwsx
- michael
- football
Choosing a secure password is easier than you think. You don’t have to memorise ridiculously complicated strings of letters and numbers (unless you want to, then by all means go for it!).
Consider substituting numbers for vowels to make your password a bit more complex, e.g. opensesame becomes 0p3ns3s4m3.
If you’re feeling adventurous, try throwing @#$%^() symbols around your chosen password, e.g. bubbles becomes $bubbles$.
Another method for deciding on a complicated password is to select two numbers on your keyboard, and then choose the letters below them in a pattern you can remember, e.g. 1 and 9 followed by the letters beneath them: ‘qiajzn’, to make ‘19qiajzn’. All you have to do is remember which two numbers you chose, and you will never forget your password!
It’s also important to remember not to use the same password for multiple websites. It just makes it easier for hackers to steal your personal information and money, not to mention greatly inconveniencing you.
It’s tempting to recycle them, but now that you have the tips above on board, choosing a secure password should be a br33z3.