In a now annual event, the media mocks us for using passwords that are criminally easy to guess. Despite this we continue to ignore the warnings and choose simple passwords but to be honest it is not our fault.
Why? Well online services both make it too easy to allow us to choose a common password, they could easily block these after all, and too hard by varying rules for what you have to use ie: including a capital or not from service to service.
Other reasons we pick rubbish passwords:
- It’s too hard to remember a different password for every service
- It doesn’t seem to be that important – until we are hacked
- We fear forgetting them so try and pick something easy to remember
One policy that really annoys me is organisations who insist you change your password periodically. This often forces people to choose something even simpler as they know they will have to come up with something new in a month or so. It would be far better to encourage people to create a complex password they can stick with unless it becomes compromised.
I created this video for BT to help guide you on how to create a more secure password that is easy to remember, the formula for doing this is thanks to advice from presenter Leo Laporte.
Truth to be told, the only way this problem will be fixed is via biometric passwords and behavioural monitoring. As with the latest iPads and iPhones you will in the future be able to login via your finger or other biologically unique feature. Additionally behavioural monitoring will be able to add an extra layer of protection, learning about elements of how you use devices then requesting extra verification when these behaviours change.
Oh, and the most common passwords for 2015 are (with change on 2014 in brackets)
1) 123456 (unchanged)
2) password (unchanged)
3) 12345678 (up 1)
4) qwerty (up 1)
5) 12345 (down 2)
6) 123456789 (unchanged)
7) football (up 3)
8) 1234 (down 1)
9) 1234567 (up 2)
10) baseball (down 2)
11) welcome (new)
12) 1234567890 (new)
13) abc123 (up 1)
14) 111111 (up 1)
15) 1qaz2wsx (new)
16) dragon (down 7)
17) master (up 2)
18) monkey (down 6)
19) letmein (down 6)
20) login (new)
21) princess (new)
22) qwertyuiop (new)
23) solo (new)
24) passw0rd (new)
25) starwars (new)
Christopher Wellbelove DL 