How Not to Create a Password

The folks at Google Apps recently conducted a study among users to determine how people chose their passwords. You know, those totally top-secret codes that no one should be able to guess because they allow you to access super-private information like bank account data and personal emails? They found that the No. 1 source of password ideas were pet names. Other common passwords came from surprisingly easy-to-identify sources like a child’s name, the name of a user’s spouse or their favorite sports team. Perhaps most disturbing, the No. 10 most popular password, is the word “Password”. The study also found that 3% of users simply write their passwords on a post-it note, and stick it to their computer (not a good idea). Here’s a friendly piece of advice: If you’re going to use something generic like “Password” as your password, at least add some numbers to it to confuse would-be hackers, like, say, “password123”. There, impenetrable …