A Twitter user was looking at the code on the Twitter signup page and found something interesting: A
list of passwords embedded in the source code that Twitter will not let you use because they aren't very secure. The ones on the list are common names, repeated numbers, sports teams, countries, and little phrases that you just shouldn't use as passwords anywhere.
Here are some of my favorites:
- 111111
- amateur
- apples
- beavis (Butthead is on the list too.)
- helpme
- horney
- iwantu
- letmein
- voodoo
- zzzzzz
If any of those are your password for Twitter, Xanga, your online banking, or anything else, please just go change it now. Check the
full list to make sure your password isn't on there somewhere.
What are some good tips for making a secure password?
Don't use your pet's names, your house number, parts of your phone number, or other identifiable information. My cousin is the CIO for Stanford Hospital (meaning his job is to make sure your information is safe), and he told me he can figure out most people's passwords just by looking at their address and finding out their pets names. Also, use letters and numbers, try mixing capital letters in, and use other characters such as ! and $ when possible. Try not to use the same password for everything: if one account is compromised, you might lose everything if they're all the same.
Have you ever had an account broken into? Do you make a point to use secure passwords?Image Source
Comments (24)
thanks so much for the info im gonna look at the list bc i currently use 1 pw for everything i think im going to mix it up
If I mix up my passwords I never remember which which is which. I have too many different sorts of accounts online, and I use the same two passwords for them all. One of which is incredibly obvious but no one seems to have thought of it. I've used the same two passwords for everything for the last three years, and I have succesfully dodged any breaking and entering. Although now I've probably jinxed myself : )
No. I use secure passwords online. Someone did get a hold of some important information once, I have no clue how it happened.
That list is crazy long! There are some things that my password to is obvious. But those are things that I dont care about!
My favorite password is actually one that was randomly generated for me once but was just easy for me to remember. So it has no relevance to anything!
I use dates from history alot. How many people know the month, day and year that the Articles of Confederation was signed into law and adopted by the original 13 states? Btw, that was a for instance, don't bother trying to hack into my account by looking up that date.
I had one password that I used on a family computer to prevent my younger siblings from accessing certain sites on the computer. The password was the date of publication for my least favorite book by my favorite author, with her intials thrown in at random spots.
My mom tends to string dates together to get passwords. for instance the year that robin hood supposedly existed combined with the year of King Arthur. Or maybe the year that WW1 started, combined with the year that ended the Korean War.
There are all sorts of fun combinations, that you can use from history. I don't however recommend using the dates of your marriage, and the dates of your kids or siblings birthdays as those are too obvious. but perhaps you have a favorite book, and a significant other has a favorite book. you could combine or intermix those two dates and the authors initials to get one real secure password.
interesting. well, thanks for the link to the other list. its good to see. I will show it to other people.
@ProudToBeAChristianFruitcake@xanga - That's a good idea. Just make sure there are also letters in with the numbers, because passwords consisting of only numbers are easier to crack than those that are mixed.
I use different pw's for every individual account that I sign up for. sometimes it takes me days to remember my dozens of different pw's
better safe than sorry
I always use either foreign words with numbers or acronyms with numbers in the middle. Never had an account hacked so far.
Oh and randomly capitalize letters as well.
i found my friend's password on that list, :]
I use long, random alphanumeric combinations for most of my passwords. It would be virtually impossible to guess what they are.
No-one has ever been able to figure out mine.
One of mine used to be 123donkey. Lol. But most of mine are usually alot more complicated than that.
good to know...good thing i don't have any of these =)
I read an article that said that any password should be hard for hacking software to figure out, so avoid using any kind of words. Instead, think of a sentence and then toss in some numbers that might change once a month. Let each word be one letter in the sentence. Example: Silly Peter tossed [number of the month: 01, 02, 03...] rotten slimy peppers. The pw would be: spt01rsp for this month.
No one would figure it out, not even hacking software. However, I could remember it if I wanted to access something like my email when I was away from my own PC.
jus'me
cm
my passwords are in latin, protuguese,german ,spanish and greek. Mwahaha hahah ahah ah ah...snort.
I think I choose good passwords, mixing together different pieces of inspiration. A place in a book (I'm an avid reader, so that doesn't narrow things down), a few numbers, random produce.
I've never given them to significant others or anyone else, so that's good.
But I don't use a unique password for each site. And I keep them for years without changing them. Bad me. :(
I used a saying on a t-shirt I was wearing one day as a password. I have about 3 different ones so if, God forbid, someone did get into anything they can't get all of my accounts.
it bothers me so much when websites make me use numbers, capitals, and characters in my password. i've had the same couple of passwords for over 5 years and no one would ever guess them. it's simple, just don't use common personal information. no-brainer.
I like the standard rule of thumb for secure passwords numbers , capitals and at least 6 characters long. But to each their own.
i use the same password everywhere but no one has even guessed mine. Ive had them for a few years too. Guess it's time for a change.
Name of Allah, the Merciful
Hello
Didn't you asked your self one day :
What's The Purpose of life ?
Here you will get the answer :
http://www.islamtomorrow.com/purpose.htm
or
Islam Guide: A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, Muslims, & the Quran
http://www.islam-guide.com/
or
The quran miracles encyclopedia
http://www.55a.net/firas/en1/
or
Islam house
http://aslam-ahmd.blogspot.com/
or
The Religion of Islam
http://www.islamreligion.com/
or
converts
http://converts-ahmd.blogspot.com/
in college, my email password was a password that was not allowed to be changed. kFi01mpz (for example). We weren't allowed to change it, and it's so random, that I've just kept it for everything.
i tend to only use numbers in my passwords. i try to keep them all the same so i remember them easier. like, i use the pin number i got back in elementary school for my lunch account for almost all of my passwords. but most sights have restrictions, like it has to be a minimum of 6 characters, or it has to have a letter. so it's not ALWAYS the same, but it's similar. this actually makes it harder to remember cuz i can never know which site has the restrictions after i've made the account. but the number is completely random and you wouldn't be able to guess it if you knew my birthday or address or anything.