Is your password too easy?

Internet security must always be on your mind if you are using a lot of online technology.  However, it’s easy to become complacent and choose passwords that are less than secure.  It can be done for a number of reasons, the password is easier to remember or worst yet it’s the same password you have for everything.

Security Tech company SplashData has released its list of the worst passwords of 2016. 

The best of the worst top the list for the second year in a row with “123456” and “password” being used more frequently than you think.  Some are adding a “secure” variation like “password1” with no help to security.

CEO of SplashData, Morgan Slain, told TeamID, “Making minor modifications to an easily guessable password does not make it secure, and hackers will take advantage of these tendencies,” He continued, “Our hope is that by researching and putting out this list each year, people will realize how risky it is to use these common logins, and they will take steps to strengthen their passwords and use different passwords for different websites.”

Other passwords that made the list included, “12345”, “football”, “princess”, “login”, “welcome”, “admin”, and “qwerty” which is a reference to your keyboard.

It is suggested that your password should be a line from a movie or book that you love, something short like “Here’s looking at you, kid” from Casablanca.  You then take the first letter of each word to make “HLAYK” and then add the year the film or book was released, in this example 1942.  So your password would by HLAYK1942.  This password can be used with a small modification for each application by adding a lowercase letter of the site you’re using it for.  Email? HLAYK1942e.  Banking? HLAYK1942b.

Was your password on the list (don’t tell us actually, just change it.)?  What do you do to keep your passwords safe?