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According to the Pew Research Center’s latest numbers, only 8% of those polled said they had heard a lot about Obama’s plans for the NSA spying programs. Let’s think about that. Eight percent. So 92% of the people polled had not heard a lot about it. Half the respondents didn’t even know Obama gave a speech on it recently. As the story says…the public has “tuned out.”
Now, just because people aren’t paying attention to the policy on the whole thing doesn’t mean they’re okay with having their lives laid open. Of course you care, right? In fact, you care so much that you’re still using the same passwords. Pro tip: If you see any of your passwords on this list, you fail. (Personally, I found the “trustno1” password to be the most amusing.)
In short, if you care more about the Superbowl than the NSA, you’re officially part of the problem. Now read the list and change your passwords. (By the way, if you haven’t figured out how this password list exists, allow me to help you: These are the most common passwords out of a list of millions that have been hacked.)
| Rank | Password | |
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1 |
123456 |
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|
2 |
password |
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|
3 |
12345678 |
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4 |
qwerty |
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|
5 |
abc123 |
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|
6 |
123456789 |
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|
7 |
111111 |
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|
8 |
1234567 |
|
|
9 |
iloveyou |
|
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10 |
adobe123 |
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|
11 |
123123 |
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|
12 |
admin |
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13 |
1234567890 |
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|
14 |
letmein |
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15 |
photoshop |
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16 |
1234 |
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|
17 |
monkey |
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18 |
shadow |
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19 |
sunshine |
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20 |
12345 |
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|
21 |
password1 |
|
|
22 |
princess |
|
|
23 |
azerty |
|
|
24 |
trustno1 |
|
|
25 |
000000 |
Xavier says: Many browsers and OS’s can use LastPass, which will let you use passwords like gJKyc4PDWY&Cm@OB1FVF. You only need to one “Master” password; LastPass encrypts and remembers all the others. I’ve been using 20 digit passwords like the one above but for the *really* paranoid 100 digits are available. I had my doubts but it’s never let me down and is very easy to use. Of course, your master password should be a near-random string of letters, numbers, and special characters.
Plus, you should be using an open source encryption program like TrueCrypt. Commercial programs are subject to back doors and the source code can’t be verified as it can with open source apps. Encryption depends on strong passwords too, and it’s worth spending a few minutes researching what constitutes a strong password. Btw, the recent kerfuffle about the NSA “breaking” encryption was BS written by a media that doesn’t understand how encryption works. What the NSA did was discover the password through brute force by using supercomputers – basically trying every available password combination until they found the right one. (this is a popular approach to breaking any password, not just ones for encryption) The best defense against this is a long random password string.
I’ve got errands to run but if this doesn’t bore you, when I get back we can talk about changing your DNS servers and encrypting all your web traffic to add another layer of obfuscation to your surfing history.
Si vis pacem, para bellum
GWB says: “photoshop” is #15? Is that the default for all those lite versions of photoshop installed on computers?
Really, the three most imporant things you can do for your personal computer security are: 1) do not use an administrator account for your everday computing, 2) change default passwords, and 3) use good strong passwords.
None of my passwords will ever be on that list. But, one thing to keep in mind: there are still computer systems that will not let you use a strong password.They reject special characters or only allow 8 characters. Do your best to demand that these systems/providers change their security policies, and let them know why you are taking your business elsewhere if that is the solution you select.
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