When you consider how much damage can be done to you life by preventable account breaches....
The list of the twenty five worst passwords for 2011 was just published. SplashData, a password management app maker, compiled a list of the 25 worst passwords of 2011, based on millions of stolen passwords that were dumped online (after significant security breaches)(http://mashable.com/2011/11/17/worst-internet-passwords/).
I know the folks here have better sense than to use the ones found by Splashdata:
1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football
The statistics about passwords are rather daunting (Sean Carroll http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2371072,00.asp):
- 41 percent have shared passwords with at least one other person in the past year.
- 90 percent don't ensure that they never use the same password on multiple accounts.
- 86 percent don't check that they're on a secure connection when accessing sensitive information on unfamiliar computers.
- 14 percent never change their banking password.
- 20 percent have used a significant date (such as a birthday) or a pet's name in their passwords.
- 84 percent fail to use passwords more than ten characters long.
And Webroot (ibid) found that among 18 to 29 year-olds:
- 12 percent have shared a password in a text message (vs. 4 percent overall).
- 30 percent logged into a site requiring a password over public Wi-Fi (vs. 21 percent overall).
- 54 percent have shared passwords with one or more people in the past year (vs. 41 percent overall).
If however you’re still looking for a way to protect yourself with a good, strong password then try LastPass 1.80 (free) or one of the other five discussed by Neil J. Rubenking here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381432,00.asp
The free and “pay for” ($1/month) version support Windows (all), Mac and Linux. The latter provides additional worthwhile features you can view here:
http://lastpass.com/features_premium.php
A good article by Eric Griffith on how to create strong passwords, (you should at least bookmark it for that spare weekend you promised to do something good for yourself) can be found here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2368484,00.asp
This won’t protect you from sites which store your data insecurely. However, you should do your part to protect yourselves, folks: Do what you can so you won’t be sorry.