12345 most popular stolen Hotmail password (PC Pro)

[Drew Wilson]

The phishing attack that exposed the details of 10,000 Hotmail users has revealed that 12345 was the most popular password of those caught out, according to a security researcher.

That's alarming news given the glut of information and warnings that pepper the internet, especially given the fact that the second most popular password was 123456789.

The information was revealed by security research Bogdan Calin on his blog. Calin reviewed the list of 10,000 Hotmail accounts posted on PasteBin by hackers and discovered that of the 9,843 valid passwords, 82 of them used one of these two numbers.

Also popular, and equally weak, were the passwords 12345678, 1234567 and 111111 - which all featured in the top ten.

More...

...and you thought "Sex" "Love" and "God" were the most popular passwords out there.

[Signa]

I set up my hotmail account to be a junk mail account. The pass was qwertyui before this happened. I did end up using it pretty thoroughly. I have to wonder how many of those accounts were just set up without a care about their security because they weren't meant to be used for anything sensitive.

[mountain_rage]

Have to agree with you Signa, I have quite a few email accounts that really are not getting anything important other than news letters, and spam. They are protected with a pretty simple password, not as weak as these posted, but not much better. My main password however generally consists of letters, numbers and special characters.

[drtoker]

Weak passwords dont equal non-sensative data. You'd be supprised how many people in positions where they have sensative data use weak passwords simply because they dont want to be bothered remembering another piece of data (a strong password).

I can tell you with some confidence that there are a LOT of idiots using weak passwords on systems and emails that should have very secure passwords.

[mountain_rage]

Weak passwords dont equal non-sensative data. You'd be supprised how many people in positions where they have sensative data use weak passwords simply because they dont want to be bothered remembering another piece of data (a strong password).

I can tell you with some confidence that there are a LOT of idiots using weak passwords on systems and emails that should have very secure passwords.

Not to mention people who use the same password for everything they sign up to. Some people probably have the same password for their bank account and their scat porn site.

[drtoker]

12345? Amazing, I have the same combination on my luggage!

Couldn't resist...