"Password" has topped the list of most popular -- or worst -- passwords of 2012.
This week, SplashData released its annual list of the most common passwords used on the Internet -- and you may be surprised as to how obvious many of them are.
The top three passwords of 2012 -- "password," "123456," and "12345678" -- remain unchanged from the 2011 list, while others such as "baseball," "iloveyou," and "111111" became a little more popular this year.
New entries to this year's top 25 include "jesus," "ninja" and the highly imaginative "password1."
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As a PR Web press release notes, users of "any of these passwords are the most likely to be victims" of security breaches.
"At this time of year, people enjoy focusing on scary costumes, movies and decorations” said Morgan Slain, SplashData CEO, referring to the upcoming Halloween festivities. "But those who have been through it can tell you how terrifying it is to have your identity stolen because of a hacked password.
“We're hoping that with more publicity about how risky it is to use weak passwords, more people will start taking simple steps to protect themselves by using stronger passwords and using different passwords for different websites," he added.
Indeed, in the wake of the "high-profile hacks of Yahoo!, LinkedIn, eHarmony, and Last.fm passwords this year, Internet users have hopefully given some additional thought to their online security," Mashable writes.
Security, however, is also a big concern when it comes to finances.
Through an analysis of a database of 3.4 million stolen passwords made public over the years, researchers at Data Genetics were recently able to determine some of the most popular ATM PINs.
Birth years, as well as simple combinations, such as "1234," "1111," and "0000," were said to be among the most commonly used PINs. The safest -- or at least what was the safest -- four-digit combination was "8068."
SplashData’s list was compiled from "files containing millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers," according to the press release. Needless to say, the company "advises consumers or businesses using any of the passwords on the list to change them immediately."
Need tips on choosing strong passwords? Watch the Mashable video above.
View the list of the 25 most popular passwords below:
- password (Unchanged)
- 123456 (Unchanged)
- 12345678 (Unchanged)
- abc123 (Up 1)
- qwerty (Down 1)
- monkey (Unchanged)
- letmein (Up 1)
- dragon (Up 2)
- 111111 (Up 3)
- baseball (Up 1)
- iloveyou (Up 2)
- trustno1 (Down 3)
- 1234567 (Down 6)
- sunshine (Up 1)
- master (Down 1)
- 123123 (Up 4)
- welcome (New)
- shadow (Up 1)
- ashley (Down 3)
- football (Up 5)
- jesus (New)
- michael (Up 2)
- ninja (New)
- mustang (New)
- password1 (New)