TORONTO - Online security experts say there are a number of tactics to thwart hackers when it comes to passwords, including changing it regularly and using a hard-to-guess combination of letters, numbers, punctuation and symbols.
But perhaps the best piece of advice is not to use "password" as your password.
The California-based software company SplashData analyzed millions of stolen passwords that had been obtained by hackers and found some dangerously simple choices came up again and again.
The most common was "password," followed by "123456," "12345678," "qwerty," "abc123," "monkey," "1234567," "letmein," "trustno1," "dragon" and "baseball."
Users who have trouble remembering all their online passwords can buy software to automatically — and securely — log them into websites.
SplashData's version is SplashID, while the Canadian company AgileBits makes 1Password.
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The full top 25 list of the worst online passwords, according to SplashData:
password
123456
12345678
qwerty
abc123
monkey
1234567
letmein
trustno1
dragon
baseball
111111
iloveyou
master
sunshine
ashley
bailey
passw0rd
shadow
123123
654321
superman
qazwsx
michael
Football