The World’s Worst Passwords (Is Yours One of Them?)

It should really come as no surprise that using “password” or “123456” for your online password is not a good idea. Unfortunately, many people still do it.

But according to password management company SplashData, there’s a whole host of password choices that are nearly as risky to use because they’re so common and easily guessable.

Nine newcomers joined veterans “123456” and “password” on SplashData’s annual list of the 25 worst passwords for 2015, including three passwords inspired by a galaxy far, far away — “starwars,” “solo” and “princess.” (Apparently “the force” is not enough to protect your data from hackers).

A few longer password combinations also made their debut on SplashData’s latest worst passwords list, including “qwertyuiop” and “1234567890.”

“We have seen an effort by many people to be more secure by adding characters to passwords, but if these longer passwords are based on simple patterns they will put you in just as much risk of having your identity stolen by hackers,” SplashData chief executive Morgan Slain said in a statement.

Here are SplashData’ biggest losers of 2015:

1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. 12345
6. 123456789
7. football
8. 1234
9. 1234567
10. baseball
11. welcome
12. 1234567890
13. abc123
14. 111111
15. 1qaz2wsx
16. dragon
17. master
18. monkey
19. letmein
20. login
21. princess
22. qwertyuiop
23. solo
24. passw0rd
25. starwars

If your password is on this list, do yourself a favor and change it now.

SplashData’s worst passwords for last year are based on leaks of more than 2 million passwords in 2015.

If you’re driving yourself crazy trying to remember all your online passwords, you may want to use one of these five password managers to help keep your secret passwords organized and always at your fingertips.

For more ideas, check out “Are Emoji-Based Passwords the Key to Hampering Hackers?”

How do you keep your online passwords organized? Share your comments below or on our Facebook page.