2014 Worst Passwords: 123456 and Variations of That Lead List

A report on 2014's worst passwords shows that consumers are more aware of the hacker threat than ever before, however there's still plenty of room for improvement.

"Passwords based on simple patterns on your keyboard remain popular despite how weak they are," said Morgan Slain, CEO of SplashData, which compiles the annual report.

Beyond passwords based on keyboard patterns like "qwerty," the report said that popular names, birth years, famous athletes, car brands, film names, and even swear words were exceedingly common, and should definitely be avoided.

For example, of the 25 most common passwords, sports words like "baseball" and "football" are in top 10, and "hockey," "soccer," and "golfer" are in the top 100.

Team names like "yankees" and "lakers" also make for weak passwords — especially because they can often be geographically coordinated with the city or state you live in.

"The bad news from my research is that this year's most commonly used passwords are pretty consistent with prior years" said report contributor Mark Burnett, online security expert and author of "Perfect Passwords."

"The good news is that it appears that more people are moving away from using these passwords. In 2014, the top 25 passwords represented about 2.2% of passwords exposed. While still frightening, that's the lowest percentage of people using the most common passwords I have seen in recent studies."

Instead of using a simple password, many cybersecurity experts recommend using an easy-to-remember "passphrase" that also includes at least one number. "CousinRuthLoves2FeedSeagulls" or "NewarkAirportIsTheWorst666" are examples of passphrases that are easy to remember, and more secure than a simple password.

Below are the most common passwords of 2014.

1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345
4. 12345678
5. qwerty
6. 123456789
7. 1234
8. baseball
9. dragon
10. football
11. 1234567
12. monkey
13. letmein
14. abc123
15. 111111
16. mustang
17. access
18. shadow
19. master
20. michael
21. superman
22. 696969
23. 123123
24. batman
25. trustno1

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