16% of passwords matched a person's first name. This includes people choosing their own first names or those of their spouses or children. The most popular first names were Joshua, Thomas, Michael, and Charlie. But I wonder if there is something else going on. Joshua, for example, was also the password to the computer in "Wargames," which almost certainly accounts for it being at top. Variations of the name "Jordan" are popular, which almost certainly refers to "Michael Jordan," a prominent basketball start (such as "jordan23," referring to his jersey number). This makes me wonder how many people use "Michael" as a password to refer to their children compared to sports stars.
14% of passwords were patterns on the keyboard, like "1234," "qwerty," or "asdf." There are a lot of different patterns people choose, like "1qaz2wsx" or "1q2w3e." I spent a while googling "159357," trying to figure out how to categorize it, then realized it was a pattern on the numeric keypad. I suppose whereas "1234" is popular among righthanded people, "159357" will be popular among lefties.
4% are variations of the word "password," such as "passw0rd," "password1," or "passwd." I googled "drowssap," trying to figure out how to categorize it, until I realized it was "password" spelled backward.
For the complete list and analysis, visit link.
http://www.darkreading.com/blog/archives/2009/02/phpbb_password.html - via tech
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.
Maybe the reason why people don't use strong passwords for websites like phpBB and Myspace is because they frankly do not care. When every site requires a password, people usually choose a simple easy to remember password for websites like these, and choose to keep their strong passwords for banking websites and the sort. The sites obviously have security holes, so I wouldn't use a serious password.
I personally use my first name for a variety of sites that require passwords, but I do not really care about the security of.
I am curious to know the passwords people choose for their primary e-mail. That would be a true test of how secure they make their password.
But honestly, why should we feel the need to create complex and unique alpha-numeric passwords for neatorama? If someone wants to hack my account and post as Justin I really wouldn't care and probably wouldn't even notice. :)
How about 123456 that's the kinda combo an idiot has on his luggage.
I wrote more about that, and about some tips for avoiding common password management headaches, here:
The Danger of Strong Passwords that are Easy-to-remember
http://faseidl.com/public/item/229130