It's good to be different!

We like to believe we’re different, but when it comes to thinking up passwords, it appears that we’re all just the same after all. Whether it’s human nature or a distinct lack of creativity when it comes to the mundane, we’re all choosing the same passwords as each other. A study of 6 million passwords by Mark Burnett found that 99.8% are the same 10,000. In fact, around 90% of passwords are the same 1,000, and nearly 5% of people simply use password as their password :)

The top 500 passwords courtesy of Xato.net

So, what does it mean for us? Well, if we’re one of the 99.8% it means our bank, our blog, our work logins are all pretty easy targets. Hackers are clever folk, but with so many people choosing the same passwords, they hardly have to break a sweat to crack them.

Your aim should be to make your sure you're in other 0.2% and that your passwords are strong enough to make it not worth the hackers' time to try and crack them.

How do your current passwords stack up? Take the test using our Password Strength Checker - it will tell you just how good or bad your passwords are and how long it'll take a hacker to crack them.

Take the my1login password test!

If you've tested your passwords and they're strong, excellent! You're in the 0.2% and can rest easy. If your current passwords aren't strong, then it's time to take some steps to improve your password security.

5 tips to improve your passwords:

• Do make them at least 14 characters long
• Do use letters, digits and symbols
• Don't use dictionary words or names
• Don't use number sequences
• Don't simply change e's for 3's, a's for 4's or append numbers to the end of words.

If you'd rather not have to think about creating strong passwords, as you know, my1login's password manager can do it for you. my1login lets you generate super-strong passwords such as e#5/yXczsID~Ygw-wIzvXJP?9 for all your accounts and saves you the trouble of having to remember or type them again: try my1login for free.