New year, new password

If your password is still ‘123456,’ it’s time to change it.

Here’s your annual reminder that it’s time to update your passwords. Each year, SplashData analyzes a list of the top passwords, complied from stolen information. Again, ‘123456’ remained the top password for hacked accounts in 2017.

And using ‘Password’ as your password also isn’t too creative. The popular password is the second most hacked password again. Adding two digits to 123456 and expanding it to ‘1245678,’ which was a new addition to the list year, is also not helping you, that was the third most hacked password. Adding the number 9 to that sequence isn’t a great idea either. New to the list this year, that password landed at No. 6.

There were a few other new inclusions on this year’s 25 most popular hacked passwords list. We know it can be frustrating, but using ‘letmein’ as a password (No. 7) won’t do you any favors. And professing your admiration for your account with ‘iloveyou’ (No. 10), or ‘monkey’ (No. 13) or ‘starwars’ (No. 16) as passwords  aren’t creative either.

“Unfortunately, while the newest episode may be a fantastic addition to the Star Wars franchise, ‘starwars’ is a dangerous password to use,” Morgan Slain, CEO of SplashData, said in a press release. “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.”

Other popular passwords were ‘qwerty,’ ‘football,’ ‘admin’ and ‘welcome.’ Remember when setting passwords to use a combination of unique characters, letters and numbers, and do not re-use the same password.

“Create passwords that are actually sentences,” said PAR’s Digital Director Kevin Juliano. “For instance, ‘Pennsylvania is the best state in America’ could lead to a password combination of ‘Pitb$iA1776.’ This seemingly random assortment of letters has meaning to the user, but is tougher to decipher than the name of your dog or your wedding anniversary date.”