With cyber warfare on the rise, identity theft rampant and hackers more capable than ever—you would think we would be more creative with our passwords than 123456 or ‘password’.  But according to SplashData’s annual Most Popular Password list, we aren’t.
 
Below is a list of 2014’s most popular passwords as compiled from the millions of stolen ones over the year. Some are utterly obvious, although monkey is slightly perplexing, as is Michael.  I mean really Michaels.

As compared to 2013:

123456 (Unchanged)
 
password (Unchanged)
 
12345 (Up 17)
 
12345678 (Down 1)
 
qwerty (Down 1)
 
123456789 (Unchanged)
 
1234 (Up 9)
 
baseball (New)
 
dragon (New)
 
football (New)
 
1234567 (Down 4)
 
monkey (Up 5)
 
letmein (Up 1)
 
abc123 (Down 9)
 
111111 (Down 8)
 
mustang (New)
 
access (New)
 
shadow (Unchanged)
 
master (New)
 
michael (New)
 
superman (New)
 
696969 (New)
 
123123 (Down 12)
 
batman (New)
 
trustno1 (Down 1)
 
I suppose the take away is this: if your password is batman, superman, dragon or any of the others on this list—change it immediately.  But perhaps also consider the security risks from other sources, such as service providers that aren’t in your direct control - your bank for example, or your antivirus software, or your VoIP telephone system provider.  Most of us just trust that these entities are doing their job on the security front, and that if anything happens, they will take responsibility.
 
We can’t speak for other organisations, but with a VoIP telephone system from VTSL, you can be rest assured that we are doing our job on the security front.  VoIP telephone systems, particularly for business, need to have special measures in place—ones that protect the individual user, and the business. For example, could your cleaner make expensive long distance calls abroad when no one is in the office?  What if your employees choose weak passwords?  Is voicemail secure?  To learn the answers to these questions and more about how VTSL protects customers to the fullest, read our Security Measures document below.



At the very least we can tell you that no Micheals work for VTSL, and if they ever do—they won’t be in charge of security.