Web Watch was visiting an office a few weeks ago when the people we were visiting were trying to log onto the shared computer in the conference room.
They thought they knew the password, but something wasn’t right. After about 20 minutes of trying, they called their IT guy for help. He walked in, went over to the computer, and read the correct password off of a Post-It Note that had been taped to the machine specifically for this purpose.
This was in a high-security building, in a room that only a few people had keys for — and the password was taped to the machine for anyone to use. It probably wouldn’t be a problem, as many people would need to use that same computer, but we’ve been told for years not to post passwords on Post-It Notes.
It’s too big of a security risk.
And speaking of a security risk, it appears that nobody has bothered to read any of Web Watch’s previous articles on why YOUR PASSWORD SUCKS. If you had, we wouldn’t have to share these TOP 25 WORST PASSWORDS FOR 2011 with you:
- password
- 123456
- 12345678
- qwerty
- abc123
- monkey
- 1234567
- letmein
- trustno1
- dragon
- baseball
- 111111
- iloveyou
- master
- sunshine
- ashley
- bailey
- passw0rd
- shadow
- 123123
- 654321
- superman
- qazwsx
- michael
- football
And to think that you’ll probably be able to log into a good 25-40% of all Facebook accounts using just the above list — it isn’t out of the question, really.
So folks, check out some of Web Watch’s other articles on what makes a good password. You’ll be glad you did.