Are you using one of the world's worst passwords?

Are you using one of the world's worst passwords?

Here's a list that might jolt you out of complacency if you're a bit lax when it comes to choosing and changing passwords.

SplashData, a leading provider of password management solutions, has put together a list of the 2012's worst passwords.

The list was compiled by analysing millions of compromised passwords that were posted online by hackers, and identifying the most common. It contains few surprises, but certainly underlines that we can all be far too slapdash when securing our online accounts.

Here are the top 10 worst passwords of 2012:

1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. abc123
5. qwerty
6. monkey
7. letmein
8. dragon
9. 111111
10. baseball

See any passwords you recognise? Change them, now. Because if you don't, it'll be child's play for a hacker to get in to your account.

Remember: the strongest passwords are as long as possible and use upper and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols. I like to choose a song lyric, take the first letters and then substitute in symbols and numbers where they're easy to remember.

For instance, the Rolling Stones' classic lines You can't always get what you want / But if you try sometimes you just might find can become:

• YcagwywB1yt$yjmf

See five other ways to create strong passwords you can remember >>