Password Manager

The 10 most commonly used passwords on the Web have been revealed as part of an analysis of tens of millions of Internet accounts.

Imperva, a data security firm, said it had analyzed around 32 million passwords that had been exposed in a recent hack of the RockYou Web site.

In December last year, a hacker breached the site's company database and gained access to the unencrypted usernames and passwords of all its 32 million users. After studying the security breach, Imperva has come up with a list of the most commonly used passwords.

"Everyone needs to understand what the combination of poor passwords means in today's world of automated cyber attacks: with only minimal effort, a hacker can gain access to one new account every second," said Amichai Shulman, Imperva's chief technical officer.

"Employees using the same passwords on Facebook that they use in the workplace bring the possibility of compromising enterprise systems."

The study found that the shortness and simplicity of passwords means many users select credentials that will make them susceptible to basic forms of cyber attacks known as "brute force attacks." Nearly 50 percetn of users used names, slang words, dictionary words or trivial passwords (consecutive digits, adjacent keyboard keys, and so on).

The top 10 most common passwords:

1. 123456
2. 12345
3. 123456789
4. Password
5. iloveyou
6. princess
7. rockyou *
8. 1234567
9. 12345678
10. abc123

* Note: this list was sourced from the RockYou website.