2015’s worst passwords

Passwords are generally linked to something personal, like a dead pet or birthday, but sometimes the creator just doesn’t have the time to think of something sentimental. Instead, they opt for “password”, or the less literal but still very lazy “12345678”. Every year, password management company SplashData compiles a list of the most popular (a.k.a. “worst”) passwords using data from stolen passwords that were made public. Instead of complex passwords. we get bewilderingly simple word and number patterns. Classics like “letmein” and “welcome” remain popular. Others follow timely trends like “starwars” or sports (“baseball”). The password “dragon” also ranks high, illustrating that fantasy fans can feel uninspired too.

A few of the most common passwords of 2015, with their rankings compared to the year before:

123456 (unchanged) password (unchanged) 12345678 (up 1) qwerty (up 1) 12345 (down 2) 123456789 (unchanged) 1qaz2wsx (new) dragon (down 7) master (up 2) monkey (down 6) letmein (down 6) login (new) princess (new) qwertyuiop (new) solo (New)