The 25 Most Popular Passwords of 2012

Though I had hoped that we, as people, would have improved our passwords by now, it turns out that we, as people, are still unimaginative and so very lazy. Just take a look at the most popular (read: the worst) passwords of 2012. They're terribly predictable.

The rankings were created by SplashData who gathered the data from the millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers in 2012 and ranked them in order of popularity. It's all similar to year's past but we've got some new additions at the end of the list in Jesus and password1. Nice for religion and online services demanding you add a number to your password! I just want to see the day where password is unseated. Here's the full list:

1. password (Unchanged)
2, 123456 (Unchanged)
3. 12345678 (Unchanged)
4. abc123 (Up 1)
5. qwerty (Down 1)
6. monkey (Unchanged)
7. letmein (Up 1)
8. dragon (Up 2)
9. 111111 (Up 3)
10. baseball (Up 1)
11. iloveyou (Up 2)
12. trustno1 (Down 3)
13. 1234567 (Down 6)
14. sunshine (Up 1)
15. master (Down 1)
16. 123123 (Up 4)
17. welcome (New)
18. shadow (Up 1)
19. ashley (Down 3)
20. football (Up 5)
21. jesus (New)
22. michael (Up 2)
23. ninja (New)
24. mustang (New)
25. password1 (New)

Internet Security

So it's almost back to school time for millions of North American students. And what do I see on Facebook? Of course people plastering their school schedules for everyone in the world to find, and use as a stalkers tool. What would compel someone to post a personal schedule that is in effect for that person for the next couple of months? It seems really very stupid to me. This isn't a matter of being overly paranoid about security or stalkers and anything like that, this is about people blatantly publicizing where and when they will be on the internet. Are they hoping someone they know will find the class schedule, plan a party and class will be cancelled for a pizza party or something? It's ridiculous,  and sheer discontent in my book. Maybe this phenomenon is just another example of how Facebook is used to give the illusion of staying in touch with acquaintances without ever having to so much as put in five seconds of effort or attention. Perhaps the knowledge of someone's schedule and giving others open access to your own provides a form of comfort so individuals can feel like they are still close with one another when in reality they are nothing more than strangers in a strange place.

The Longest Password Ever

We laugh -- but her I.D. is safe.

During a recent password audit by a company, it was found that an employee was using the following password:
"MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofySacramento"
When asked why she has such a long password, she rolled her eyes and said: "Hello! It has to be at least 8 characters and include at least one capital."