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CNN's List Of The Most Commonly Hacked Passwords Reveals That We've Never Moved On From The Late '90s

CNN's List Of The Most Commonly Hacked Passwords Reveals That We've Never Moved On From The Late '90s
Witthaya Prasongsin / EyeEm/GettyImages, @christiannilsen/Twitter




With cyber attacks and compromised accounts being constant concerns, you may want to rethink your password strategy. Especially if your passwords are specific to the '90s.

CNN shared the most common passwords people come up with, and some will shock you.

Many Internet users use names, sports teams and expletives, while "123456" was the most common used by 23.2 million accounts.

Now that's just lazy.

If you fall into any of the above-mentioned categories and want your information protected, it's time for a change.


According to a survey taken by UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), one of the top passwords used to break into systems worldwide was "Blink182."


If you're not familiar with the code word, Blink 182 was a Southern California band that dominated the skate punk scene in the early '90s, which was known for its irreverent humor with songs like "Apple Shampoo" and "Dammit."




CNN tweeted out the other usual suspects, including "iloveyou" and "superman."






Fans of the band were made fun of for their nostalgia-inspired password.


Dedicated fans of Blink-182 spoke out.




Finally, Blink's percussionist Travis Barker weighed in with an "oh well" emoji, and fans responded by admitting they use his name as a password.





Ian Levy, NCSC Technical Director suggested avoiding the obvious choices like first names and favorite bands.

"Password re-use is a major risk that can be avoided -- nobody should protect sensitive data with something that can be guessed, like their first name, local football team or favorite band."

He added:

"Using hard-to-guess passwords is a strong first step and we recommend combining three random but memorable words. Be creative and use words memorable to you, so people can't guess your password."

Sorry to disappoint, but Blink-182 can't save you now. If you need a handy place to keep all your passwords in one place, check out this notebook. Or this one. But, uh, don't leave them somewhere obvious. That's like using 123456 for everything.

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