Considering we live in a world that is somewhat obsessed with the internet, we really don’t know how to keep our virtual lives safe. Below is a list of the 25 most common passwords of 2012 compiled by SplashData and it makes you think…”That’s obvious” or “Why the hell is ‘Monkeys’ in the top 10?”
But seriously…to the people in the human race that uses the passwords below: Write your home address on a tag and attach it to the same keyring as your house key, give it to a guy wearing a balaclava and a black sack and say “I’m out tonight, help yourself” – because essentially you are doing the same thing online. Word of advice: DO NOT use the passwords below!
- password (Unchanged)
- 123456 (Unchanged)
- 12345678 (Unchanged)
- abc123 (Up 1)
- qwerty (Down 1)
- monkey (Unchanged)
- letmein (Up 1)
- dragon (Up 2)
- 111111 (Up 3)
- baseball (Up 1)
- iloveyou (Up 2)
- trustno1 (Down 3)
- 1234567 (Down 6)
- sunshine (Up 1)
- master (Down 1)
- 123123 (Up 4)
- welcome (New)
- shadow (Up 1)
- ashley (Down 3)
- football (Up 5)
- jesus (New)
- michael (Up 2)
- ninja (New)
- mustang (New)
- password1 (New)
What’s the risk?
Britain this year has so far spent over £50 billion via online shopping – imagine how many credit card details have been stored online to spend this kind of money. From the list of common passwords you cannot be surprised that internet fraud is at an all time high, costing the UK £3.5 billion (a large price to pay by using a weak password). Having an easy password can have the same consequences of telling a stranger your pin number and giving them your bank card.
What can I do?
The most important thing to do is to create a password that is bespoke, complicated to guess and unique to every online registered account. Other than keeping your password safe, be sure to consider the following points:
• Green address bar: this signifies that this site has undergone extensive identity authentication so that you can be confident it is the site it claims to be
• Trust marks: popular trust marks such as logos can indicate important things about an online business.
• Check the URL: look out for sites that do not contain a company’s name immediately before the .com or relevant suffix.
• Does it look genuine? If a website seems poorly built or programmed and does not contain any verifiable security information, it may be a fake.
• Spell check: Be aware of sites with obvious and abundant typographical errors; many phishing and spoofing websites originate in foreign countries.
The moral of the story is to simply use the internet responsibly and whenever providing a website with sensitive information, treat your details as if they are your pin numbers or house keys because otherwise, you can give away the contents of both.
