Star Wars impacts password preferences
19 January, 2016
category: Corporate, Digital ID, Financial, Government
Even with people continually being told they shouldn’t use weak passwords or reuse them across sites it’s still happening, according to SplashData and the 2015 edition of its annual Worst Passwords List.
The news, however, isn’t entirely bad. In the fifth annual report, compiled from more than 2 million leaked passwords during the year, some new and longer passwords made their debut, which may be a sign that websites and consumers are attempting to be more secure. The longer passwords, though, are so simple the extra length is worthless as a security measure.
For example, “1234567890,” “1qaz2wsx” — first two columns of main keys on a standard keyboard — and “qwertyuiop” — top row of keys on a standard keyboard — all appear in the top 25 list for the first time, but they are each based on simple patterns that would be easily guessed by hackers.
As in past years’ lists, simple numerical passwords remain common, with six of the top 10 passwords on the 2015 list are of numbers only.
Sports remain a popular password theme. While baseball may be America’s pastime, “football” has overtaken it as a popular password. Both appear in the Top 10, with “football” climbing three spots to number seven and “baseball” dropping two spots to number 10.
When it comes to movies and pop culture, The Force may be able to protect the Jedi, but it won’t secure users who choose popular Star Wars terms such as “starwars,” “solo,” and “princess” as their passwords. All three terms are new entries.
Other passwords appearing on the 2015 list that did not appear on the 2014 list include “welcome,” “login,” and “passw0rd.”
The list of worst passwords was taken from consumers in North America and Western Europe, according to SplashData.
See the 2014 list here.
