A list of the most popular passwords of 2014 reveals that internet security continues to be far less important to most people than simple memorability - much to the frustration of security experts worldwide.
SplashData compiles a list annually by collecting stolen data published by hackers throughout the year and analysing the passwords. It excludes data from non-English speaking countries.
During 2014, as in the year before, the most popular password was “123456”. In second place for the second year was “password”. Experts recommend using a password of eight characters or more, made up of lower- and upper-case letters, numbers and special characters. It is also important not to use the same password for each log-in, so that if hackers compromise one service they are not able to log into your accounts across the internet.
The 25 most popular passwords:
| 1. 123456 | 2. password | 3. 12345 | 4. 12345678 | 5. qwerty |
| 6. 123456789 | 7. 1234 | 8. baseball | 9. dragon | 10. football |
| 11. 1234567 | 12. monkey | 13. letmein | 14. abc123 | 15. 111111 |
| 16. mustang | 17. access | 18. shadow | 19. master | 20. michael |
| 21. superman | 22. 696969 | 23. 123123 | 24. batman | 25. trustno1 |
