MENUMENU
  • FREE RESOURCES
        • Accounts Payable
          Finally! The trick to securing greater T&E compliance
          Benefits
          Rooting out folks who don’t belong on your health plan: A 6-point dependent audit checklist
          IT
          3 costly misconceptions about biz email compromise
          Credit and Collections
          Collecting via email: 4 must-make moves in your subject line
          Accounts Payable
          5 Tough-to-spot signs that an invoice is fake
  • PREMIUM CONTENT
        • Staff management
          120 Proven Communications Tips for Today’s CFO
        • Payroll
          Handling Nonexempt Employee Pay: Stay Compliant and Avoid DOL Audits
          Accounts Payable
          T&E Best Practices: Complete Guide to Ensure Compliance
          Payroll
          Payroll Best Practices: 4 Ways to Save Time and Money
        • Staff management
          Email Best Practices: A 6-Question Quiz
          Staff management
          Innovative Communications Strategies: An Email Case Study
          Staff management
          A 5-part Framework for Successful Workplace Communications
        • SEE MORE
          PREMIUM RESOURCES
  • CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES
  • LOGIN
  • SIGN UP FREE

CFO Daily News

MENUMENU
  • FREE RESOURCES
        • Accounts Payable
          Finally! The trick to securing greater T&E compliance
          Benefits
          Rooting out folks who don’t belong on your health plan: A 6-point dependent audit checklist
          IT
          3 costly misconceptions about biz email compromise
          Credit and Collections
          Collecting via email: 4 must-make moves in your subject line
          Accounts Payable
          5 Tough-to-spot signs that an invoice is fake
  • PREMIUM CONTENT
        • Staff management
          120 Proven Communications Tips for Today’s CFO
        • Payroll
          Handling Nonexempt Employee Pay: Stay Compliant and Avoid DOL Audits
          Accounts Payable
          T&E Best Practices: Complete Guide to Ensure Compliance
          Payroll
          Payroll Best Practices: 4 Ways to Save Time and Money
        • Staff management
          Email Best Practices: A 6-Question Quiz
          Staff management
          Innovative Communications Strategies: An Email Case Study
          Staff management
          A 5-part Framework for Successful Workplace Communications
        • SEE MORE
          PREMIUM RESOURCES
  • CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES
  • Accounts Payable
  • Credit and Collections
  • Payroll
  • Accounting
  • Benefits
  • Finance Technology
  • More
    • Employment Law
    • Strategy
    • Policy and Culture
    • Fraud
    • Payments and Transactions
    • Budgeting and Forecasting
    • Banking
    • Staff Management
    • Cost Control
    • Supply Chain
    • IT

The 25 worst passwords: Could any of your finance staffers be using these?

Jennifer Azara
by Jennifer Azara
February 5, 2015
2 minute read
  • SHARE ON

Yes, “123456” still made the list. But there are several new entries on the list of the year’s worst passwords. And if any finance systems are “protected” by them, you could be in trouble.

Not only that, but even if staffers are using the “safer” 8-plus letters and number combination, there’s new evidence you might not be as protected as you thought.

Take a gander at what made SplashData’s Worst 25 list this year so you can be more confident your sensitive data is covered.

Any of these look familiar?

There were 10 new additions to the list this year, so before staffers assure you they’re not using “password,” make sure they aren’t relying on any of these other 24 either:

Rank Password
1 123456
2 password
3 12345
4 12345678
5 qwerty
6 123456789
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

 

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t

Too simple a password is no good – but neither is too complex a choice, either.

The reason: When they’re too tricky to recall, most people tend to use the same password for everything – both personal and business access. And that puts you at increased risk.

After all, the minute someone’s Facebook account gets hacked, your sensitive financial information could be unlocked, too.

Finding a happy (and safe) medium

So what’s the best course of action today? There’s new thinking as far as best practices in passwords these days.

Here are two suggestions you might pass along to your team to walk the fine line between playing it safe and keeping passwords manageable.

  1. Swap one letter for another. Say a staffer wants to use her cat’s name as a password. Instead of using Jingles, have her use the letter to the left of each letter in the name on the keyboard. So Jingles becomes Hubfkwa. Easy to remember, but tough to crack.
  2. Use a favorite song lyric or quote. Then pick 2-4 numbers from 1-10. Each word will correspond to a number. So if your quote is “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” and you chose 1, 3, 5 and 7, your password would be Thethinghaveis.” Even better: Thethinghaveis1357.

For more on the SplashData list, click www.splashdata.com

Jennifer Azara
Jennifer Azara
Jennifer, a member of the CFO Daily News staff, has covered business and finance for more than 22 years. She has written for CFOs, credit and collections professionals and accounts payable practitioners and has spoken at industry conferences on sales and use tax compliance.

Keep Up To Date with the Latest Finance News

With CFO Daily News arriving in your inbox, you will never miss critical stories on accounting, benefits, payroll & employment law strategies.

Sign up for a free CFO Daily News membership and get our newsletter!
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
CFO Daily News Logo
  • ABOUT CFO DAILY NEWS
  • ADVERTISE WITH US
  • WRITE FOR US
  • CONTACT
  • Accounting
  • Benefits
  • Payroll
  • Policy and Culture
  • Employment Law
  • Fraud
  • Finance Technology
  • Accounts Payable
  • Credit and Collections
  • Strategy
  • Payments and Transactions
  • Budgeting and Forecasting
  • Banking
  • Staff Management
  • Cost Control
  • Supply Chain
  • IT

CFO Daily News, part of the SuccessFuel Network, provides the latest Finance and employment law news for Finance professionals in the trenches of small-to-medium-sized businesses. Rather than simply regurgitating the day’s headlines, CFO Daily News delivers actionable insights, helping Finance execs understand what Finance trends mean to their business.

Privacy Policy Terms of Service
Copyright © 2021 SuccessFuel

WELCOME BACK!

Enter your username and password below to log in

Forget Your Username or Password?

Reset Password

Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.

Log In

preloader