The Lamest Passwords of 2014: See the List

'123456' holds the top spot since 2013.

By
NICOLE PELLETIERE
January 21, 2015, 3:41 PM ET
3 min read

— -- If you're punching in ridiculously weak passwords like 123456, then you could be the answer to every hacker's dream.

This is the fourth year that password management company SplashData has announced what it says are the worst passwords used in 2014.

The list is compiled through a sophisticated algorithm that pulls the most commonly leaked passwords from the Internet, the California-based company says.

Instagram Is Vast But Its Favorite Themes Are Surprisingly Few, Study Shows
The Most Used Word of 2014 Isn't Even a Word

“Hackers want to boast what they've accomplished when they breach a site,” says Morgan Slain, chief executive officer of Splashdata, Inc. “They’ll post the passwords on forums and they get circulated. We collect these throughout the year."

For the second year in a row, 123456 topped the list of the worst passwords used in 2014. Next at number two was the word password.

"The top passwords tend to be extremely consistent year to year," Slain tells ABC News. "It's human nature for people to use easy passwords that are easy to remember and easy to type. They're looking at simple progressions on the keyboards with numbers. There's also some funny ones. Monkey is always showing up on the list and we really can't explain why."

According to Slain, using a more complex password with special characters will secure you against being hacked or worse, exposure of personal and financial data as well as identity theft.

"Out of the 3.3 million leaked passwords, the top 25 were used by 2.2 percent,” he says. "It's still an incredibly high number, but it’s a lot less than we’ve seen in previous years. It’s encouraging that people are starting to get the message.”

For the safest password, Slain and SplashData suggest using a combination of words that are meaningful to you, while adding in special characters. One example can be “Sophie-l1kes-cake.” The hyphens make it stronger, as does the number 1 replacing the letter ‘I.’

Here's the list of worst passwords for 2014:

1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. 123456789
7. 111111
8. 1234567
9. iloveyou
10. adobe123
11. 123123
12. admin
13. 1234567890
14. letmein
15. photoshop
16. 1234
17. monkey
18. shadow
19. sunshine
20. 12345
21. password1
22. princess
23. azerty
24. trustno1
25. 000000