Better check your passwords

From Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) –

SplashData.com recently published the following information regarding the most popular 2012 passwords on the web. The ranking was based on password information from compromised accounts posted by hackers online. The article was also featured on blogs.avg.com.

This year, the list is back! So it’s time to see how, if at all, users have learned their lessons about what makes a strong password.

Here’s the full list and how it compares to last year’s:

As you can see, people haven’t changed their password habits a whole lot in a year.

If your password is included on that list, or is a close variation of these passwords, it’s really important to take action now!

Fixing your password problem can be very simple;

Long is strong: The longer the password, the more difficult it will be for someone to try and crack it using brute force. So, instead of a single word, with a jumble of symbols, numbers and characters, try a string of words. Use a line of your favorite poem, song or just something memorable. Feel free to add your lucky number at the end if you like.

Something like: “withnodirectionhome1085”.

A famous Dylan lyric like this will always be easy to remember, and say you were born in October 1985. This means that you’ve suddenly got a 23 character password, which is much harder to crack than something much harder to remember such as “Phu!R7tRjX”.

Variety is the spice of life: The trouble with smaller, complex passwords is that they can be a real hassle to remember, often forcing you to use the same password for multiple accounts which is never a good idea. So another benefit of having long, easy to remember passwords is that you keep many passwords.