Many studies have found that one of the most common passwords is “password”. This is likely because it is the default in many systems. A very bad default, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

We’re overwhelmed by passwords, so it’s not surprising that many people choose highly insecure, but easy to type and remember, passwords. They’re creating a large risk for themselves by doing that.<\/p>\n

When creating a password, do a threat assessment, judging the risk to you if someone guesses or hacks the password. An on-line forum is not a great risk, as likely all that could happen is that someone could make postings or send internal messages in your name. Your web hosting account or on-line bank are much more serious, and require very strong passwords.<\/p>\n

Create a password that mixes upper and lower-case letters, numbers and, if the system allows it (many don’t) symbols such as hyphen, #, @, or %. If you find strong passwords difficult to remember, create a mnemonic or a phrase in which you enter the first character of each letter, substituting 1 for i, 3 for e, etc. Not all systems allow you to include special characters, which in my view is a foolish limitation.<\/p>\n

Do not use only words found in the dictionary, as password cracking software quickly tries all of those. Do not use your birthday, or spouse’s name, or your city, or any other personal data that could be easily guessed by someone who knows a few of your details.<\/p>\n

Do not write your password on something you leave accessible. Don’t, as too many people do, keep a written copy of your ATM banking password in your wallet. I recall a boss whose office computer and network password was “tigger”. This was poor in three ways:<\/p>\n

\n
1. It is too short.<\/li>\n
2. It’s the name of a popular Winnie the Pooh character.<\/li>\n
3. He wrote it on a yellow post-it note stuck to his office workstation for all to see.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

   Also, according to one study, Top 500 Worst Passwords of All Time<\/a>, it’s the 34th most common password. Another common password is “ncc1701”, the registration number of the USS Enterprise from the original Star Trek. One of my clients uses this as his cPanel web hosting password (no, I do not host his sites).<\/p>\n

   That 500 Worst Passwords list makes for interesting reading. I found many themes. Cars are a common choice: mustang, porsche, firebird, camaro, corvette, toyota, ferrari, bronco, jaguar, viper, saturn, mercedes, sierra, blazer, ford, falcon, scorpion, dakota, ranger.<\/p>\n

   Sports teams are another favourite: flyers, giants, eagles, yankees, rangers, packers, redsox, gators, cowboys, braves, dolphins, redwings, broncos, redskins, raiders, angels, arsenal, united, chelsea. Sports also make the most common list: baseball, football, fishing, golfer, tennis, nascar, swimming, soccer, hockey.<\/p>\n

   Within the top 500 are many place names: austin, japan, canada, boston, newyork, brazil, phoenix, dallas, brandon, chicago, victoria, london, paris, sydney, russia, florida.<\/p>\n

   Many common first names are used: jennifer, michael, eric, jack, michelle, daniel, william, george, thomas, robert, kevin.<\/p>\n

   There are colours: black, orange, purple, white, yellow, blue.<\/p>\n

   Surprisingly, there is a large number of sex related words. You can check for yourself, I won’t repeat them here.<\/p>\n

   Even when people try to be clever by using numbers instead of common words, they use obvious string that are used by thousands of other people: 123456, 1234, 1111, 12345, 12345678, 2222, 7777, 5555, 6666, 666666, 1212, 0, abc123.<\/p>\n

   If you have trouble coming up with good passwords, you can use a random password generator such as this one<\/a>. If you’re working on your cPanel web hosting account, you’ll find a password generator built into cPanel, to use when creating mail accounts and FTP accounts, and for reseller and VPS accounts there is one in WHM when creating new cPanel accounts.<\/p>\n

   Choose a method that works for you, but be sure to protect yourself with strong, uncommon passwords.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   Many studies have found that one of the most common passwords is “password”. This is likely because it is the default in many systems. A very bad default, in my opinion. We’re overwhelmed by passwords, so it’s not surprising that many people choose highly insecure, but easy to type and remember, passwords. They’re creating a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[143,1,134],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n