Most used passwords are Password1 and password

In its 2012 Global Security Report, Trustwave revealed that 5% of all system passwords include the word ‘password’, while the most common password on business systems is ‘Password1’.

Computer systems often require that users introduce some complexity into their passwords, which can include mandatory inclusion of numbers and capital letters into the mix. It seems that some users are taking this a bit literally, and instead of conceiving of a more fiendish password concoction, they’re opting instead for the most obvious solution to meet the bare minimum requirements.

Trustwave used a $1500 computer and publicly available tools to try to crack over 2.5 million passwords, and within ten hours had succeeded in identifying over 200,000 of them. CNN Money also highlighted information from Verizon, which revealed this week that in 29% of the security breaches that it has investigated over the last twelve months, weak or easy-to-guess passwords were a factor.