5 Passwords You Should Never Use

[allheart55 Cindy E]

Password. Believe it or not, this is still a common password. Don’t use it.

 

Letmein. We recommend that you use passphrases that are memorable. Just don’t use this one. It ranks high on several lists of the most-used passwords.

 

Monkey. This common word appears on many lists of popular passwords. It’s also too short. Make passwords at least eight characters—the longer the better.

 

Your pet’s name. While you’re at it, don’t use any passwords that can be easily guessed, such as the name of your spouse or partner, your nickname, birth date, address, or driver's license number.

 

12345678. Avoid this and other sequences or repeated characters such as 222222, abcdefg, or adjacent letters on your keyboard (such as qwerty).

 

Bonus password tips

Don’t use the same password for multiple sites. Cybercriminals can steal passwords from websites that have poor security and then use those same passwords to target more secure environments, such as banking websites.

 

Change your passwords regularly, particularly those that safeguard your computer, important accounts (like email or Facebook), and sensitive information, like financial and health data.

 

For more password guidance, see Create strong passwords.

[AWS]

I have been using pass phrases for years. It's always a phrase that only I would know and contains multiple words with every so many letters capitalized. Works well for. Easy for me to remember and hard to crack.

[allheart55 Cindy E]

I do the same thing. My pass phrases usually contain a combination of capital and lower case letters with numbers totaling 15 or 16 letters and numbers.

[Rich-M]

I use the same password I dreamed up 14 years ago everywhere and add 1,2 or 3 0's depending on how many letters and numbers

are called for and have never been hacked. I just see it as an annoyance and if the thing doesn't absolutely have to have one, it doesn't get one.

[iamhe]

I use the same password I dreamed up 14 years ago everywhere and add 1,2 or 3 0's depending on how many letters and numbers

are called for and have never been hacked. I just see it as an annoyance and if the thing doesn't absolutely have to have one, it doesn't get one.

 

Funny, I've been doing *exactly* the same thing, for about the same amount of time: a seven-character nonsense word, followed by three 1's, or three 2's, or three 3's ... etc.

 

I still do that with accounts I'm not particularly concerned about getting hacked (like this one ;)). For accounts with higher stakes however, I've started using passwords comprised of very long strings of random characters (for example, my Twitter password is 44 characters long!), which I retrieve from a password manager app.

 

Oh, and I use two-factor authentication on any site that offers it, e.g. Dropbox and Evernote.

[Rich-M]

That's funny I thought I had a lock on it.

[allheart55 Cindy E]

Looks as if the jig is up, Rich. :boxer:

[Rich-M]

Yes I guess so Cindy!

[iamhe]

I like to think of it as a "great minds" kind of thing. :D

[allheart55 Cindy E]

That works for me. :big_grin:

[IceMan37]

Good advice Cindy!

[Rich-M]

Sounds good to me!