'Donald' named one of the worst passwords of the year

Choosing a password for your computer or laptop shouldn't really be that hard of a task. All you have to do is pick a word that you will remember that others are unlikely to guess.

That's easier said than done though especially when you need to include numbers, symbols, upper and lower case letters. It's almost as if these security programmes and tech firms don't want us to use our own machines.

This 'first world' problem which seems to plight at least 50 per cent of the planet is clear for everyone to see in the annual 25 worst passwords of the year from SplashData.

The usual suspects of '123456' and 'password' take up the top two positions on the countdown but there is a new entry at number 23 which is quite eye-opening.

The word 'donald' makes its debut on the list. Not 'trump' or 'trump1' but just 'donald.'

I'm not one to place a bet but I'd put good money on this actually being Trump's password and possibly the password that the rest of his family use and probably most of his fan base.

Other new passwords on the list include 'charlie', 'aa123456','princess' and the highly creative '111111.'

In a statement from SplashData CEO Morgan Slain, he reveals that celebrity names, sports teams and pop culture references often crop up on password lists as hackers often have great success in guessing them.

Sorry, Mr. President, but this is not fake news – using your name or any common name as a password is a dangerous decision.

Hackers have great success using celebrity names, terms from pop culture and sports, and simple keyboard patterns to break into accounts online because they know so many people are using those easy-to-remember combinations.

The top 25 worst passwords are as follows:

1 123456

2 password

3 123456789

4 12345678

5 12345

6 111111

7 1234567

8 sunshine

9 qwerty

10 iloveyou

11 princess

12 admin

13 welcome

14 666666

15 abc123

16 football

17 123123

18 monkey

19 654321

20 !@#$%^&*

21 charlie

22 aa123456

23 donald

24 password1

25 qwerty123

SplashData compiles their data after evaluating more than 5 million passwords that are leaked online every year from users in North American and Western Europe.

Passwords used on adult and pornographic sites are not included in the list but they did determine that at least 10 per cent of have used at least one the 25 worst passwords, with 3 per cent using '123456.'

If you have used any of these passwords SplashData does offer some tips on how to avoid using them such as having a 12 character passphrase, not using the same password for every login and have a password manager organise all of your passwords for you.

With all this in mind, we'd just like that point out that although 'donald' is worryingly high, '666666' is even higher.

HT TechCrunch

More: You need to change your Twitter password. Immediately