Is “password” your password?

Despite the obvious insecurity in using the word "password" as your password, it’s the most popular (and least secure) password used on the Internet, according to a new list published by SplashData.

The Internet security firm’s annual list of scary logins comes just in time for Halloween -- with a warning. Anyone caught using these lame passwords is most likely already or soon to be the victim of a security breach. 

"At this time of year, people enjoy focusing on scary costumes, movies and decorations, but those who have been through it can tell you how terrifying it is to have your identity stolen because of a hacked password,” said Morgan Slain, SplashData CEO.

    'Those who have been through it can tell you how terrifying it is to have your identity stolen by a hacked password.'

- Morgan Slain, SplashData CEO

“We're hoping that with more publicity about how risky it is to use weak passwords, more people will start taking simple steps to protect themselves by using stronger passwords and using different passwords for different websites."

Several high profile password hacking incidents dotted headlines in 2012, including a handlful at major sites including Yahoo, LinkedIn, eHarmony, and Last.fm.

But despite these -- and the publicity created around the 2011 list of the worst Internet passwords -- little has changed, SplashData noted: The top three passwords, "password," "123456," and "12345678," remain unchanged from last year's list.

New entries to this year's list include "welcome, " "jesus," "ninja," "mustang, " and "password1."

SplashData, provider of the SplashID Safe line of password management applications, releases its annual list in an effort to encourage the adoption of stronger passwords.  It culls the list from millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers.

#              Password                Change from 2011
1               password                 Unchanged
2               123456                    Unchanged
3               12345678                Unchanged
4               abc123                     Up 1
5               qwerty                     Down 1
6               monkey                    Unchanged
7               letmein                     Up 1
8               dragon                     Up 2
9               111111                    Up 3
10             baseball                   Up 1
11             iloveyou                   Up 2
12             trustno1                   Down 3
13             1234567                  Down 6
14             sunshine                  Up 1
15             master                      Down 1
16             123123                    Up 4
17             welcome                  New
18             shadow                    Up 1
19             ashley                      Down 3
20             football                     Up 5
21             jesus                        New
22             michael                     Up 2
23             ninja                         New
24             mustang                   New
25             password1               New

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