These are the passwords we all need to stop using
Jan. 28 is Data Privacy Day, dedicated to raising awareness about data protection and privacy. It's a good time to look at your own data security habits and see if you are unnecessarily exposing yourself to risk.
Every year, data security firm SplashData releases its list of the "worst passwords" -- commonly used passwords that are weak and easy to guess -- that it says can put users at risk for hacking and identity theft. If you recognize any of the passwords on this list, you may want to take a second look at how you're securing your data online.
SplashData's 10 Worst Passwords of 2015:
- 123456
- password
- 12345678
- qwerty
- 12345
- 123456789
- football
- 1234
- 1234567
- baseball
"123456" and "password" once again topped the list in 2015. Most of the passwords on the list were sequential strings of numbers and all of the Top 10 were on the 2014 list as well.
There were some new additions to the full list that might reflect one of the major pop culture events of the year. "starwars," "solo" and "princess" came in at 25, 23, and 21, respectively, possibly hinting at the world's fascination with the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
So how do you create a secure password? Common tips include creating longer passwords, avoiding recognizable words and using a mix of letters (both uppercase and lowercase), numbers, special characters and punctuation.
The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of Lucasfilm and this station.
