The Scoop on Passwords

To start with, I’ve been looking at different strategies people use to secure their accounts across the web. As you probably know, many people use the same password for everything they do, and security experts have continually warned against it. People continue to do it, though, since it’s just easier to remember one password than it is to remember 15.

I’ve seen a few different things people will do to create a password. The majority of passwords that seem to follow the same pattern have a very simple little algorithm people use to create the password: take word, append “1″. This is likely due to the fact that a lot of websites now require that your password contains numbers and letters. Appending one is hardly secure, though.

I also see a lot of people using 2 dictionary words stuck together, like bluemoose, doorswim, or {insert 2 curse words}. These are people that signed up for a payed service mind you!

Some people have resorted to using the same password twice (like 123abc123abc) in order to meet websites with a minimum password length. Others just have numbers in their password (really bad idea due to brute forcing). A lot of people choose something that they see in their area, such as the name of their computer manufacturer.

What other patterns have you seen people using to come up with passwords?