College Times

Issue date: 4/9/09 Section: Top 10s

Apparently, people really are that stupid. With all the security threats on the internet, you wonder why people would be inclined to create such simple passwords. So here are the top 10 most commonly used passwords taken from a random sample of people (mostly European) in 2006. My recommendation to you - don't use them.

10. Thomas (0.99%) - Thomas was reported to be the second most popular name in the UK in 2000, and apparently people also enjoy using it for a password.

9. Arsenal (1.11%) - Well this shouldn't be a problem in the US, but in the UK Arsenal is one of the top ranked soccer teams in overall attendance rankings, and also a popular password.

8. Monkey (1.33%) - Who can think of a better 6-letter animal to choose than "monkey" for a password?

7. Charlie (1.39%) - Well, I guess Charlie was a bit more popular name than Thomas.

6. Qwerty (1.41%) - This must be the classic scenario when people choose a password based on the closest thing next to them.

5. 123456 (1.63%) - Seeing how most passwords are 6-letter characters, what better way than to count to 6?

4. Letmein (1.76%) - aka "let me in," very original I must say.

3. Liverpool (1.82%) - Again, a popular soccer team in the UK, so I'm not sure if this would be such a popular password in the US.

2. Password (3.78%) - What better characters to choose as your password than the word "password" itself?

1. 123 (3.784%) - This must be the password people use who can't count to six.

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