The Top 25 Worst Passwords of 2011

Internet security has always been a concern, and passwords have always been our first line of defense in protecting our personal information. That's not to say a hacker still won't try to attack you, but an airtight password will definitely deter them. So if passwords are so important, why are people still using painfully obvious passwords like "123456" or "password?"

That being said, PC Magazine recently released their list of the 25 worst passwords of 2011. If any of your passwords show up on here, you might want to think about getting a new one:

1. password (...really? People still use this?)
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey (apparently, this one makes the list every year. I wasn't aware that many people liked monkeys...)
7. 1234567 (anyone else seeing a pattern here?)
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd (it's not a typo, it's just replacing the "o" with a zero)
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx (look at your keyboard, and this password will make more sense)
24. michael
25. football (Funny...I thought this one would be much higher on the list than "baseball.")

As a general rule for passwords, you should avoid sequences, repeating numbers or characters, or words that you can find in the dictionary, something that all of these people clearly didn't get. You can check out my Geek Girl Report for more tips on how to create strong, secure passwords.