When trying to secure your various devices and accounts of electronic convenience, a strong password is always the first step to a good defense. Though creating a strong password is sometimes easier said than done, especially when most people use fandoms as inspiration. With Star Wars: The Force Awakens still fresh in people's minds, that periodic password change at work has already yielded some interesting results. Check out the full list of the 25 worst passwords below, which contains several references to everyone's favorite galaxy far, far away:
1. 1234562. password3. 123456784. qwerty5. 123456. 1234567897. football8. 12349. 123456710. baseball11. welcome12. 123456789013. abc12314. 11111115. 1qaz2wsx16. dragon17. master18. monkey19. letmein20. login21. princess22. quertyuiop23. solo24. passw0rd25. starwars
This list comes from internet security company SplashData, as they are promoting one of their security programs by culling this list from over 2 million passwords that were leaked last year. Sure enough, three of the brand new entries on the list were cribbed directly from the Star Wars universe, as "princess," "solo," and "starwars" all made their first foray onto the list. Though if you want to stretch a little, the word "master" was probably stuck in a lot of people's minds after re-watching the original trilogy in preparation for 2015's highest grossing film.
Using your fandom isn't a bad way to create a memorable, yet secure password. However, it is recommended that you follow the usual guidelines you'll see most sites requiring for password generation when signing up. The general rule of thumb has most passwords coming in anywhere between 8 and 16 characters long, with 12 being a good, solid number for security. Now as far as the actual content of the password goes, this is where you have to get creative, as the more complex the pattern, the more secure you are.
Say you're a big Rey fan after watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens. If you want to go with a standard passphrase, you could create something like, "@Bb8#HoLdON!" Note how the capitalization is mixed throughout the password, with special characters breaking up the words. Also, the 12 character length helps ensure that if anyone does end up trying to crack your password, it'll take them a pretty long time – due to the number of possibilities increasing exponentially with each character. So the more complicated the password, the better odds you won't have to have a security breach on your hands. And since you're already replaying it in your mind, here's the combination scene from Spaceballs:
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is currently in theaters, and if you need a new Fandango password, may we suggest "KyLo*ReN!15?"
