One one hand we have the spectre of cyberattacks that cripple critical systems–credit, water, electricity, and our “dispiriting” defenselessness. On the other hand we have the ten most popular passwords, based on analysis of millions of passwords stolen from software developer RockYou:
- 123456
- 12345
- 123456789
- password
- iloveyou
- princess
- rockyou
- 1234567
- 12345678
- abc123
We are a remarkable species. It’s a wonder we’ve survived this long.
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2 Comments
"Mr. Shulman and his company examined a list of 32 million passwords that an unknown hacker stole last month from RockYou, a company that makes software for users of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace."
Actually, this could very well be a case of sample selection bias–one could make the argument that the 32 million passwords were only stolen by the hacker BECAUSE most of them were weak to begin with [i.e. 12345, abc123, password]. In that case, the most popular passwords would obviously have been weak ones.
The sample of passwords that this article is based on wasn't randomly collected…the article clearly states that the passwords were stolen–well yeah they were stolen because they were weak [i.e. 12345, abc123, password]. It's a circular claim.
Whats the point in claiming that the most popular passwords [in a sample of inherently weak passwords] are weak?
That's a highly unlikely scenario for many reasons. To start, the weakest passwords would have the least value. Do you believe most people do, in fact, use secure hard-to-guess passwords?
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