Favorite passwords: "1234" and "password"

Feb 12, 2009

Better think twice before choosing a password for emails, online bank accounts and airline tickets.



Content from AFP expires 1 month after original publication date. For more information about AFP, please visit www.afp.com .

Explore further: Poll: Teens migrating to Twitter

add to favorites email to friend print save as pdf

Related Stories

Yahoo Japan suspects 22 million IDs stolen

May 18, 2013

Yahoo Japan Corp. has said it suspects up to 22 million user IDs may have been stolen during an unauthorised attempt to access the administrative system of its Yahoo! Japan portal.

Fleeing Facebook: Study examines why users quit

May 01, 2013

With more than a billion active accounts worldwide, it can be easy to forget that some people don't use Facebook. In fact, "non-use" of the social networking site is fairly common – one-third of Facebook ...

Recommended for you

Poll: Teens migrating to Twitter (Update)

10 hours ago

Twitter is booming as a social media destination for teenagers who complain about too many adults and too much drama on Facebook, according to a new study published Tuesday about online behavior. It said ...

Seniors are attractive targets for online fraud

18 hours ago

Victims of online fraud need greater support to help them overcome the often serious health effects that follow discovery of the deception, QUT cybersecurity researcher Cassandra Cross says.

User comments : 3

Adjust slider to filter visible comments by rank

Display comments: newest first

Scarpia
5 / 5 (2) Feb 13, 2009
I know this is an AFP story, but... 'European keyboards'??????? Why is it that U.S. based reporters keep mislabeling French things as 'European', as if Europe was one big French suburb?? The AZERTY keyboard layout is used exclusively in French-speaking countries, meaning France and Belgium only (not even Canada!). All the rest of Europe uses QWERTY or QWERTZ variants. Get your facts straight before insulting a whole continent and embarrassing yourself.
TaraKelly
not rated yet Feb 15, 2009
Sure, people using bad passwords is a major issues - but it's not the problem, it's a symptom. The problem is people can't remember passwords, so they get by with what they can.

Password managers are built specifically to make good passwords (unlike the ones listed about) and save them for folks (so they don't have to remember).

I'm a Passpack.com co-founder so yes, I'd love for you to give it a try. But there is plenty of software out there that does this.

How about writing a round up?
bmcghie
not rated yet Feb 16, 2009
Or, get this, you can simply REMEMBER your passwords. It's not that hard to have 20 or 30 unique passwords stored in your head. You just have to exert a little mental effort trying to remember it as you create it.

Sheesh, it's not rocket science. :)

More news stories

Game system castAR debuts at Maker Faire

(Phys.org) —Two tech talents, formerly employees at video game publisher Valve, have been working on their own vision in the form of game-ready glasses. Their company, Technical Illusions, will seek to ...

Green conversion of heat to electricity

Soon, it will be possible to produce electricity from heat over 30 degrees emitted from a waste incinerator, refinery, or data processor. The start-up Osmoblue has just confirmed the feasibility of this new ...

Encouraging signs for bee biodiversity

Declines in the biodiversity of pollinating insects and wild plants have slowed in recent years, according to a new study. Researchers led by the University of Leeds and the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in the Netherlands ...

If you can remember it, you can remember it wrong

(Medical Xpress)—Native peoples in regions where cameras are uncommon sometimes react with caution when their picture is taken. The fear that something must have been stolen from them to create the photo ...

B vitamins could delay dementia

(Medical Xpress)—Despite spending billions of dollars on research and development, drug companies have been unable to come up with effective treatments for dementia and Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Now, A. ...

New method for producing clean hydrogen

Duke University engineers have developed a novel method for producing clean hydrogen, which could prove essential to weaning society off of fossil fuels and their environmental implications.