by Scott Guelig
Passwords are part of everyday life. They’re needed to protect our computers, documents, billing and banking accounts. Even though people are encouraged to select secure, strong passwords, many people continue to choose weak, easy-to-guess ones, placing themselves at risk from fraud and identity theft. The following list is the comprised of the 25 “Most Hacked” passwords of 2011.
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
To protect your personal and professional accounts: use a variety of letters, numbers, and symbols. Change your passwords every six months. Do not use the same password for every account, and even a slight variation in a password makes a difference. Avoid using real words, as hackers use “dictionary attacks” that make it easy for them to crack passwords that are words or sequential numbers.
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