For many people security on mobile devices is a major issue, and something we can all do to improve this it to try to pick secure passwords for our smartphones, tablets and online accounts. While some are meticulously careful with this, others of us may not take enough time and rely on an easy-to-remember password or worse still use the same password for everything. Today we have news of the Worst Passwords top ten, so don’t pick these!

If many of us had any idea of just how vulnerable our information was we’d be horrified, but taking steps to improve this is something we always mean to do but don’t get round to (at least for us). SplashData has just compiled its list of 2014 worst passwords, and some of these would require very little if any hacking, and should be avoided at all costs.

The top ten worst passwords are as follows —

1) 123456
2) password
3) 12345
4) 12345678
5) qwerty
6) 123456789
7) 1234
8) baseball
9) dragon
10) football

It seems almost unbelievable that ‘123456’ and ‘password’ remain in the top two positions from the 2013 list, as you would think that people are increasingly aware of the need for security. However, although 2.2% of exposed passwords came from the top 25 worst passwords, it appears that less people are choosing the same key words as that number has fallen.

One thing worth noting is that we should all try to bypass children’s names, curse words, and sports teams, as they are all popular in the top 100. Advice from SplashData is to always use different passwords for different things, and to use mixed character passwords of at least 8 characters. Readers can also check out helpful advice on how to create a strong password or check how strong a password is at this Microsoft page.

Will you be reviewing the passwords you use on your mobile devices and online accounts? Maybe you’re alarmed to see one of your commonly used passwords in the top 10? Let us know with your comments.

Source: Re/Code