World

Weakest passwords revealed

11:53 am on 6 February 2015

An American computer firm has ticked off computer users for using easy-to-crack passwords.

SplashData, based just south of San Francisco, has compiled a list of the most commonly used bad passwords.

The most common one is '123456', which it said would provide no challenge whatsoever to a hacker.

The next most commonly used bad password was the word 'password' itself.

Other passwords often used were '12345', '12345678' and qwerty.

It said people should realise they were leaving themselves open to identity theft and use smarter passwords.

SplashData compiled the list from 3.3 million passwords leaked last year.