HACKERS COUNT ON ‘123456’

Most popular passwords

The most common password in the country is also the worst — “123456.” Roughly 150,000 unimaginative Americans made the simple six-digit password the key to unlocking a digital device. The Top 5 in the 100 Worst Passwords of 2017 list—aka the most comm on—were rounded out by old standbys like “password” “12345678,” “qwerty” and “12345,” according to the California tech company SplashData. Those with just a little imagination picked a password from pop culture. As “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” takes cinemas by storm, “starwars” became No. 16 on the company’s latest list. “Unfortunately, while the newest episode may be a fantastic addition to the ‘Star Wars’ franchise, ‘starwars’ is a dangerous password to use,” said Morgan Slain, CEO of SplashData, which compiled the list from the millions of passwords stolen and released publicly following massive cyberattacks. “Hackers are using common terms from pop culture and sports to break into accounts online because they know many people are using those easy-to-remember words,” Slain said.

Other notable bad passwords include “letmein” (No. 7), “login” (No. 14), “trustno1” (No. 25).

And you’re not fooling anyone with names, “robert” (No. 31), “nicole” (No. 53) and “michelle” (No. 81) among them. Lots of “Game of Thrones” fans chose “dragon” (No. 18). “Football” (No. 9) is the most popular sports-related password, “cheese” (No. 44) is the top-rated food, and “ferrari” edged out “corvette” among cars (Nos. 43 and 46, respectively). On the raunchier side, “a--hole” made the list, at No. 34, and “f--kyou,” at No. 52.

The Maryland-based National Institute of Standards and Technology says users tend to come up with passwords that are easily guessed because humans have only a limited ability to memorize complicated strings of characters.

In response, online services are forcing users to adopt increasingly complex passwords.

This, however, has not greatly reduced hack attacks, as guidelines have resulted in passwords that are harder to remember but no more difficult for computers to guess.

And it doesn’t take a computer to guess the 99th-most-popular password, particularly prevalent in the Northeast: “yankees.”