The list has been compiled by Dr. Jeff Yan of Lancaster University and reported on by The Daily Mail. You will be surprised to know that “123456” and “password” are at the top spot. The number three spot was occupied by “welcome” followed by “ninja” at number four. Next was “abc123”, “123456789”, “12345678”, “sunshine”, “princess” and “qwerty”. While speaking to The Daily Mail, Dr. Jeff Yan said “Why do [some] use such obvious passwords? A main reason I think is that they’re either unaware of or don’t understand the risks of online security.”. He further added, “Just like everybody knows what one should do when red lights are on in the road, eventually everybody will know 123456 or the like is not a good password choice.” Dr. Jeff Yan used the database of obsolete accounts from a 2012 voice-calling service and researchers from Lancaster University and Peking and Fujian Normal universities in China guess the passwords for more than 73% of users after creating special algorithms. So, if you want to stay safe online then follow this tips for password creation as suggested by Microsoft in Windows support page:
At least eight characters long Does not contain username, real name, or company name Does not contain a complete word Is significantly different from previous passwords Contains at least one uppercase letter, lowercase letter, number, and symbol
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