[ISN] The Top 500 Worst Passwords of All Time

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 02:01:26 -0600 (CST)
http://www.whatsmypass.com/?p=415

November 30th, 2008

 From the moment people started using passwords, it didn't take long to 
realize how many people picked the very same passwords over and over. 
like these. To give you some insight into how predictable humans are, 
Even the way people misspell words is consistent. In fact, people are so 
predictable that most hackers make use of lists of common passwords just 
the following is a list of the 500 most common passwords. If you see 
your password on this list, please change it immediately. Keep in mind 
that every password listed here has been used by at least hundreds if 
not thousands of other people.

There are some interesting passwords on this list that show how people 
try to be clever, but even human cleverness is predictable. For example, 
look at these passwords that I found interesting:

ncc1701 The ship number for the Starship Enterprise

thx1138 The name of George Lucas's first movie, a 1971 remake of an 
earlier student project

qazwsx Follows a simple pattern when typed on a typical keyboard

666666 Six sixes

7777777 Seven sevens

ou812 The title of a 1988 Van Halen album

8675309 The number mentioned in the 1982 Tommy Tutone song. The song 
supposedly caused an epidemic of people dialing 867-5309 and asking for 
"Jenny"

"..Approximately one out of every nine people uses at least one password 
on the list shown in Table 9.1! And one out of every 50 people uses one 
of the top 20 worst passwords.."

Lists the top 500 worst passwords of all time, not considering character 
case. Don't blame me for the offensive words; you were the ones who 
picked these, not me.

[...]


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Received on Mon Jan 05 2009 - 00:01:26 PST

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