1234567 is NOT a password!
Password security is a tremendously problematic area; it is without question the weakest link in your chain of defense against criminal access to your computer, your email, and your online assets. But it is really pretty easy to defend yourself on this front. See my earlier post about how to create really strong passwords - "Your weakest link", Oct 5th. Passwords are the one thing we each have very good control of; we should be able to make this an area where the bad guys are decisively blocked. Unfortunately many people completely dismiss their responsibility in this area and leave themselves wide open to the most trivial attacks.
1234567 may not be a very secure password, but it's popular on Hotmail.That's according to Bogdan Calin, a security researcher who got hold of10,000 stolen Windows Live Hotmail usernames and passwords that were posted to the Web site PasteBin late last week.
Other Web mail providers such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and AOL have also been hit by the phishers, according to the BBC, which reported that it had seen a total of 20,000 accounts, half of which were the same ones that Calin analyzed.
After taking a look at the passwords, the security researcher found that two very weak passwords -- 123456 and 123456789 -- were the most common ones used by the victims. Of the 9,843 valid passwords he found, 82 of them used one of these two combinations. 12345678, 1234567 and 111111 also made the top 10 most common passwords.
