The Worst Passwords of 2015

SplashData, a developer of password management software, has published its annual list of the most common (worst) passwords people used with their online identities.

Despite the countless times we’ve written on Softpedia about the importance of picking and using strong passwords, with an accent on choosing a long password over a complex one, people still keep failing to protect their personal details.

Why is it important to choose a long or complex password? Because short or common passphrases, even if encrypted, can be broken in a matter of minutes or hours with almost any competent password cracking tool.

That being said, on SplahsData's list of worst passwords of 2015, 123456 nabbed the top stop once again, just like in 2014.

If you imagine that's bad, the rest of the top 10 is filled with other masterpieces like password, 12345678, qwerty, 12345, 123456789, football, 1234, 1234567, and baseball.

Some people got creative with their passwords, but they still kept choosing common words like mustang, access, letmein, master, shadow, superman, michael, monkey, and so on, all of which wouldn't stand more than 10 minutes in a brute-force dictionary attack.

Besides the super-hero and the surname theme, this year, people also had a sports obsession, with many choosing passwords such as football, hockey, soccer, steelers, yankees, rangers, lakers

Additionally, the password starwars also made it on the list at #25. I wonder how that happened?

The most common (worst) passwords of 2015