25 Worst Passwords of 2012

TIME Tech :Olivia B. Waxman 25 Oct 2012

If any of your passwords are on this list, then shame on you — and go change them now.

SplashData, which makes password-management applications, has released its annual Worst Passwords list compiled from common passwords that are posted by hackers.

 The top three — “password,” “123456″ and “12345678″ — have not changed since last year. New ones include “jesus,” “ninja,” “mustang,” “password1″ and “welcome.” Other passwords have moved up and down on the list.

The most surprising addition is probably “welcome.”

“That means people are not even changing default passwords,” SplashData CEO Morgan Slain tells TIME Tech. “It doesn’t take that much time to make a new password.”

You should have different passwords for all your accounts. To make it easier to remember them all, Slain suggests thinking about passwords as “passphrases.” 

For instance, use a phrase like “dog eats bone” and add underscores, dashes, hyphens and other punctuation marks to satisfy the special-character requirement: “dog_eats_bone!”

MORE: Two-Minute Video: How to Create Strong Online Passwords

Here’s the full list:

1. password
2, 123456
3. 12345678
4. abc123
5. qwerty

6. monkey
7. letmein
8. dragon
9. 111111
10. baseball

11. iloveyou
12. trustno1
13. 1234567
14. sunshine
15. master

16. 123123
17. welcome
18. shadow
19. ashley
20. football

21. jesus
22. michael
23. ninja
24. mustang
25. password1