Last year's worst passwords were just as bad as ever

It seems no matter how bad the hacking gets each year, from celebrities to the DNC, we still never seem to learn anything about password security. If you caught our piece on the worst passwords of 2015, it will probably come as little surprise to know that things didn’t improve much in 2016.

According to Keeper Security, last year’s most popular password is still the same as it was in 2015: ‘123456’. This perennial favorite is being used by approximately 17 percent of the 10 million users the security firm analyzed. Fortunately, the unbelievably simple ‘1234’ has dropped off the list entirely and ‘password’ has moved from second place to eighth.

If you think that sounds like things are improving though, not so fast. The five consecutive number strings from ‘123456’ to ‘1234567890’ were still in the top seven, with the other two top spots taken by – you guessed it – ‘qwerty’ and ‘111111’. The final two spots in the top ten were the particularly complex ‘987654321’ and ‘123123’.

If you see any of your passwords on the list, please slap yourself in the face and then go install a solid password manager to take the brain-hurt out of securing your most private information. We totally understand how irritating good password security can be, but just think how’d you feel if you got hacked and your password was ‘123456’.

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