The Biggest Password Mistakes of 2018

Passwords are one of the first lines of defense against hackers and data breaches. 

On Wednesday, digital security company Dashlane released its third annual list of the "Worst Password Offenders." 

Kanye West tops the list for his iPhone passcode of 000000, which he displayed in full view of television cameras in the Oval Office. But just behind him is the Pentagon, which made the list for a GAO report that discovered the vulnerabilities plaguing U.S. weapons systems. 

Coming in at number 7 is the White House. The administration made the list this year because of one particular staffer who left his email password at a Washington, D.C., bus stop. 

Other high profile organizations like the United Nations and Google also made the list. 

But these organizations aren't alone in using weak passwords. SplashData released the list of the 25 most common ones. At the top of that list are "123456" and "password." In general, passwords on this list were short, simple and very easy to crack. SplashData created the list by evaluating 5 million passwords that had been linked online over the course of the year, Gizmodo reports. 

So, what kind of password should you use to avoid these big mistakes? 

There are a few things you can do. First, start using passphrases instead of passwords. Create something long but easy for a human to memorize. While it may be easy for you to memorize a song lyric or a sentence, the more characters a password has, the harder it is for a computer to crack.  

Enabling two-factor authentication is still one of the best ways to back up your password and protect yourself online. This security feature is available on almost every email service and social media platform, so take advantage.

And never, ever reuse passwords. If one of your accounts is breached, that could mean a hacker has access to every account.