10. 'thomas' (0.99‰) First off, at number 10, is the most common format of passwords - the name. Thomas is a perennially popular name in the UK (2nd most popular in 2000), so it is perhaps no surprise that it makes the top 10, with nearly 1 in 1,000 people opting for this ubiquitous forename as their password. We can only guess that there are a lot of fans of Thomas Jefferson or Thomas Edison out there! The high prevalence of Christian names only further reinforces the fact that loved ones are a common choice when it comes to passwords. 9. 'arsenal' (1.11‰) Football teams tend to be another popular choice, and the gunners fall in 9th place. This may or may not be reflective of the fact that the word 'arsenal' starts with a 4-letter swear word - another popular choice when it comes to passwords. Arsenal are ranked 6th overall in average attendance rankings, and are the 2nd most popular football-related password. 8. 'monkey' (1.33‰) Quite why the monkey makes it into 8th place is beyond me, but the fact that it's a 6-letter word (6 letters is a typical minimum length for passwords), is easily typed and is memorable probably helps cement its position as ideal password material. Still, it's quite worrying that there's such a trend - perhaps the internet and monkeys are inextricably linked? 7. 'charlie' (1.39‰) Another name - nowhere near as common a name as No. 10, Thomas, but it's our most popular name-based password overall. Could of course, be a homage to a number of famous Charlies - Chaplin, Sheen, or those of a Chocolate Factory persuasion. Or, of course, it could just be the case that they're referring to it's slang usage. 6. 'qwerty' (1.41‰) I wonder where the inspiration for this one came from? Perhaps when faced with a blinking cursor and an instruction to choose a password people will tend to look to the things closest to them - which would explain why 1 in 700 people choose 'qwerty' as their password. 5. '123456' (1.63‰) Can you count to 6? It's the most common minimum required length of password - and the 5th most common password. 4. 'letmein' (1.76‰) A modern-day version of 'open sesame' - and 1 person in 560 will type 'letmein' as their password. Quite why is beyond me. I could be mistaken, but I have a hunch that 'letmein' has been featured in a movie or TV series - Fox Mulder's password from the X Files - 'trustno1' - also ranked quite highly. 3. 'liverpool' (1.82‰) The most popular football team by some margin, Liverpool was the third most popular password overall. Does this mean that 1 in 550 people is such a devout Liverpool fan that they would be willing to entrust private data to the team they love? Liverpool ranked 3rd in the average attendance ratings - leaving the 2 most popular teams, Manchester United and Newcastle United, out of the top 10 list - perhaps because they're too long and difficult to type. 2. 'password' (3.780‰) Akin to pressing the 'any' key, when told to enter a 'password', it would seem that users aren't the sharpest tool in the box - with almost 1 in 250 people choosing the word 'password'. 1. '123' (3.784‰) With nearly 4 people in 1,000 opting for a simple numerical sequence as their password (it should be noted that there was no lower length limit specified), '123' must be the first thing a lot of people think of when asked to specify a password. One dreads to think what their PIN number might be! http://www.modernlifeisrubbish.co.uk/top-10-most-common-passwords.asp
Here in Oz, you say Arsenal we duck for cover. As for Liverpool, well, we've heard of it.. some place in the UK aint it ? I wonder where the survey took place ?
Just to let you know Arsenal is a sports team. It's a new minor league basketball team in Anaheim (Disneyland). And Liverpool used to be in the UK but Michael Jackson bought it and moved it to Santa Barbara It was a worldwide survey take in London, Manchester, and Liverpool. I was shocked not to see magpies or swans in there. My favorite password is . Go Socceroos!
I always use the same word, I just add a numerical value somewhere in the word each time this way I never use same password for important stuffs and it's easier to remember too
Passwords. Blah. I have too many, and since I tend to make them different to each place, I'm periodically finding myself going through the "lost password" process. Ha! Thanks, Michelle
I keep all of my passwords for sites which I don't care if they get hacked (like this one) the same, it's also very simple. My Paypal/other payment processors/bank/server root/cpanels are all totally different and very complicated. I don't like the idea of passwords though, especially when it's a cpanel or server which I haven't touched for months, I'm constantly using weird automated passwords which are generated by the 'forgot password' thing.
I use 'password' for my hotmail/yahoo/gmail/aim/msn/and some other sites like Digital Point. OK, gotta change my password now.
LOL I'm glad I had 5 levels of passwords to use for all login general, easy, somewhat secret, secret, super secret. LOL sometime I also need to have password that all my friends know (how come it called password LOL) to share some stuff.