25 worst passwords of 2011

As someone who works in IT, it scares me some of the passwords I have seen. I have walked up to a desk, picked a word from a poster on the wall, and been able to log in to their computer with it.

Um, can I ask why you would be walking up to someone's computer and logging in when they are not there? Not only that but why would someone give you their password to log on in the first place? I worked for a company and under no circumstance were you ever to give any of your passwords out to anyone -- not even the IT department. We regularly had emails and stupid trainings about passwords and not giving them out to anyone. If IT needed to get onto my computer they would come up to my desk and have me log on. If I wasn't there then they had to wait until I was. It would be a serious breach of our company's protocol/security if they got on without my permission.

I am guilty of the post it:blushing:
But seriously if my 15 different passwords would just change all at the same time rather than at different intervals I would have a much better chance of actually remembering the one I need:/

Use a password safe with strong master password, and then you can store all of your other passwords in it.

Yes!!! My name made the worst password list! xD haha but good for me I don't use my name! :P

I recently learned a new trick from IT to make more secure passwords. It's so simple, I can't believe I didn't know this. Pick a sentance that has meaning for you and then use the first letter of each word as the password. Adding capitals and numbers will make it even better.

That's not a "new" trick, but it is a good way to create secure passwords.

oh my gosh! that would drive me nuts! mine would never make sense to anyone but me. i don't know how i could come up with a new one every 60 days AND remember it! i'd want to go back to ones from before.

i have several and i often forget what i used at what site/ account. it gets annoying!

I recently learned a new trick from IT to make more secure passwords. It's so simple, I can't believe I didn't know this. Pick a sentance that has meaning for you and then use the first letter of each word as the password. Adding capitals and numbers will make it even better.

e.g. Sarah joined MFP in 2011 and has lost 8 pounds = SjMFPi2011ahl8p

using a sentance about who is in your family, when you were married, or when you graduated is super easy to remember.

PS - the above is not ANY of my passwords

Ohhh - I love this!!! I've been running out of ideas...at work we have to change them every 60 days and cannot use any of our last 24 passwords....and the passwords can't even have the same 3 consecutive letter/numbers combo in them as the prior 24!
Thank you, thank you!!!

As someone who works in IT, it scares me some of the passwords I have seen. I have walked up to a desk, picked a word from a poster on the wall, and been able to log in to their computer with it.

I work in IT too, and have users that pick a word (kid's name, motorcycle model, product name, company name, etc.) then put a number after it. When it expires they just increase the number by 1. When I go to help them, I can usually guess the password in 2-3 tries. Unless they have it on a post-it on their desk... then I just log in.

I have been guilty of this. My brother works in IT so he told me to change it up a bit, adding symbols, and combine upper/ lower case letters in the password. He advised that it still was not good to use my son's names...but what are the chances that a hacker knows my children's name?

oh my gosh! that would drive me nuts! mine would never make sense to anyone but me. i don't know how i could come up with a new one every 60 days AND remember it! i'd want to go back to ones from before.

i have several and i often forget what i used at what site/ account. it gets annoying!

I recently learned a new trick from IT to make more secure passwords. It's so simple, I can't believe I didn't know this. Pick a sentance that has meaning for you and then use the first letter of each word as the password. Adding capitals and numbers will make it even better.

e.g. Sarah joined MFP in 2011 and has lost 8 pounds = SjMFPi2011ahl8p

using a sentance about who is in your family, when you were married, or when you graduated is super easy to remember.

PS - the above is not ANY of my passwords

Ohhh - I love this!!! I've been running out of ideas...at work we have to change them every 60 days and cannot use any of our last 24 passwords....and the passwords can't even have the same 3 consecutive letter/numbers combo in them as the prior 24!
Thank you, thank you!!!

I just use a trick my dad said they would use at work.... take a password, insert a character, move said character everytime you need to change your password... then move onto a new password...

As someone who works in IT, it scares me some of the passwords I have seen. I have walked up to a desk, picked a word from a poster on the wall, and been able to log in to their computer with it.

I work in IT too, and have users that pick a word (kid's name, motorcycle model, product name, company name, etc.) then put a number after it. When it expires they just increase the number by 1. When I go to help them, I can usually guess the password in 2-3 tries. Unless they have it on a post-it on their desk... then I just log in.

this is exactly what i did at work. and i wrote in on a post-it and put it in the drawer with my pens. why? cause i only worked 10 hours a week, and they often needed things i was working on when i wasn't there. everyone knew what my password was and how to find it. i didn't keep anything on there i needed to be private, and all my work was protected by a different password, so no one could alter what i'd done. made perfect sense to me!

As someone who works in IT, it scares me some of the passwords I have seen. I have walked up to a desk, picked a word from a poster on the wall, and been able to log in to their computer with it.

Um, can I ask why you would be walking up to someone's computer and logging in when they are not there? Not only that but why would someone give you their password to log on in the first place?

Actually, in that particular case, we had the right to log in to any of the computers. There was no such thing as "your" computer; they all belonged to the organization, and this was clearly stated. It was annoying when people would submit a ticket to have a computer problem fixed, and then leave the computer logged in but locked under their id. Trust me, the last thing I want to know is someone else's password; between work and home I have at least 30 to 40 passwords to deal with just for me.