Small Business Technology News

The Worst Passwords For Your Small Business

Written by Tim Morral
Published: 1/23/2015

With mobile security and other IT challenges looming large in the minds of small business owners, SplashData releases its annual list of the worst--and most dangerous--passwords of 2014.

Data security should be a top of mind concern for all small business owners. The number of cyber security threats small companies face grows every year. Yet, according to SplashData, many employees still aren't getting the message--and they continue to use passwords that leave themselves and their employers vulnerable.

Worst Passwords Security Risk

The Riskiest Passwords of 2014

Passwords represent the initial line of defense against unwanted account access and potential data loss. But it's surprising how many users rely on extremely weak passwords to protect their personal and work accounts.

As reported by Business Insider and other media outlets, SplashData's list of the worst and weakest passwords of 2014 includes:

  1. 123456
  2. password
  3. 12345
  4. 12345678
  5. qwerty
  6. 1234567890
  7. 1234
  8. baseball
  9. dragon
  10. football
  11. 1234567
  12. monkey
  13. letmein
  14. abc123
  15. 111111
  16. mustang
  17. access
  18. shadow
  19. master
  20. michael
  21. superman
  22. 696969
  23. 123123
  24. batman
  25. trustno1

To compile the list, SplashData evaluated the 3.3 million passwords that were leaked in 2014, resulting in serious risks to individuals and companies.

Small Business Security Threats in 2015

Going forward, the need for improved password protection will be critical for small business workplaces, since the use of account-based technologies is expected to increase significantly in 2015 and subsequent years.

In a recent Business Journals report, John Mason, general manager of IBM's midmarket business, identified several small business trends that will gain traction this year, including a greater use of critical data, social technologies and mobile technology in the workplace--many of which require password-based account access.

According to Mason, 42 percent of small businesses already say that it would be a serious challenge to operate their companies without mobile services and one in three indicate that it would be impossible to operate without mobile.

While the use of mobile apps has the potential to deliver significant productivity gains to small business employees, it also underscores the importance of robust password protection. To improve security, small business owners should educate their workforce about using passwords with eight or more digits, combining letters, numbers and symbols.

Technology planning for small businesses should also encourage workers to use a variety of usernames and passwords for various work and personal accounts, and possibly target the implementation of a password manager to further strengthen IT security.

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