If Your Password is in this List, Change it Now!

While most of us know a strong password is important in protecting our accounts from being hacked easily, there are still many people who continue to use weak, easily guessable passwords. Security firm Splashdata, which compiles a list of the most common stolen passwords, just released the rankings for 2013. Here's the full list: 

1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. 123456789
7. 111111
8. 1234567
9. iloveyou
10. adobe123
11. 123123
12. admin
13. 1234567890
14. letmein
15. photoshop
16. 1234
17. monkey
18. shadow
19. sunshine
20. 12345
21. password1
22. princess
23. azerty
24. trustno1
25. 000000

According to Splashdata, the major security breach at Adobe in October 2013 had a huge influence on the rankings. The hackers reportedly stolen the customer IDs, encrypted passwords and encrypted credit/debit card numbers of at least 38 million Adobe users.

"Seeing passwords like 'adobe123' and 'photoshop' on this list offers a good reminder not to base your password on the name of the website or application you are accessing," says Morgan Slain, CEO of SplashData.

Splashdata stated that for the first time since it started compiling these annual lists, "password" lost its top position to "123456". The latter was the runner-up for the past two years.

The security firm also noticed that there are more short numerical passwords in the list this time despite websites ramping up stronger password policies. For example, "1234", "12345" and "000000" are ranked 16^th, 20^th and 25^th respectively.

The New York Times reported in 2011 that a strong password consists of 10 characters which should include a good mix of letters, numbers and symbols. While a 10-character password is not hack-proof, it would take hackers a longer time to guess the correct combination.

Source: Splashdata via PCWorld

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