News and Commentary

It’s 2019 And People Are Still Using Stupid Passwords. Here Are The Worst Of The Year.

   DailyWire.com
Password entry screen on computer screen.
Richard Newstead via Getty Images

It seems like every other month we’re learning about data breaches at major companies. This year alone, 4 billion records were breached in the first six months of the year alone.

Facebook and popular video game Fortnite were both breached this year.

Yet on a more personal level, people are leaving themselves up to hacking and identify theft by using easy-to-guess passwords like … “password.”

SplashData, a security services firm, recently released its latest annual list of the worst passwords. The firm evaluates more than 5 million passwords that have been leaked online to compile list.

It’s interesting to note that “Donald,” which SplashData suggests is a reference to President Donald Trump, was on the list of worst passwords last year but does not appear on this year’s list.

“Invoking the name of the president or any other celebrity as your password is a dangerous decision, one that hackers will exploit and put you at substantial risk of having your identity stolen,” said Morgan Slain, CEO of SplashData, Inc., a developer of password security solutions for personal and business protection.

Below are the 25-worst passwords of the year, along with their change in ranking from last year:

1 – 123456 (rank unchanged from 2018)
2 – 123456789 (up 1)
3 – qwerty (Up 6)
4 – password (Down 2)
5 – 1234567 (Up 2)
6 – 12345678 (Down 2)
7 – 12345 (Down 2)
8 – iloveyou (Up 2)
9 – 111111 (Down 3)
10 – 123123 (Up 7)
11 – abc123 (Up 4)
12 – qwerty123 (Up 13)
13 – 1q2w3e4r (New)
14 – admin (Down 2)
15 – qwertyuiop (New)
16 – 654321 (Up 3)
17 – 555555 (New)
18 – lovely (New)
19 – 7777777 (New)
20 – welcome (Down 7)
21 – 888888 (New)
22 – princess (Down 11)
23 – dragon (New)
24 – password1 (Unchanged)
25 – 123qwe (New)

SplashData reported that passwords like “1q2w3e4r” and “qwertyuiop” are not safe because although they seem complex, they are still “simple patterns using contiguous keys on the keyboard,” which won’t fool hackers.

“Our hope by publishing this list each year is to convince people to take steps to protect themselves online, and we think these and other efforts are finally starting to pay off,” Slain added in the press release. “We can tell that over the years people have begun moving toward more complex passwords, though they are still not going far enough as hackers can figure out simple alphanumeric patterns.”

Gizomodo highlighted an additional 25 terrible passwords via SplashData-owned company TeamsID:

26 – 666666

27 – 1qaz2wsx

28 – 333333

29 – michael

30 – sunshine

31 – liverpool

32 – 777777

33 – 1q2w3e4r5t

34 – donald

35 – freedom

36 – football

37 – charlie

38 – letmein

39 – !@#$%^&*

40 – secret

41 – aa123456

42 – 987654321

43 – zxcvbnm

44 – passw0rd

45 – bailey

46 – nothing

47 – shadow

48 – 121212

49 – biteme

50 – ginger

As you can see, “Donald” made the second list.

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