WyzGuys Tech Talk

If you are using one of these passwords, you might as well not have a password.  This is according to a recent post on the Microsoft blog.

• Password
• Letmein
• Monkey
• A pet’s name (i.e. Fluffy)
• 12345678

This five is from another list on the CBS News website that lists the 25 most commonly used passwords in 2013.

• 123456
• password
• 12345678
• qwerty
• abc123

Two of these passwords were common to both lists.

You may be wondering how we know what passwords are the most used?  The answer is that security researchers who shop on the Internet underground for “Rainbow Tables” or lists of cracked passwords found these to be the most common.

And again, password rules to follow:

• Longer passwords are better.  I recommend at least ten characters.
• Use UPPER CASE, lower case, num63rs, and $ym6o!$
• Do not use the same password on multiple sites.
• Do not use words from any language.
• Do not use names of family members or pets, birthdates or anniversaries, or other information that is a matter of public record.  I can find your mother’s maiden name with little difficulty on any genealogy site.  Or Facebook for that matter.