We Are Bad at Choosing Password Hints

Al Jazeera America has an article called “123456, your mom and other things that shouldn’t be your password,” which is pretty self-explanatory: It seems as if a lot of people are not very good at choosing passwords, or even when they are, they sometimes make the mistake of making the password hint too easy to identify. Here’s a list of popular password hints based on a recent data breach that happened to Adobe:

So even if you think your password is genius and uncrackable, it’s not if your password hint is “dog” and someone can easily figure out the name of your dog by poking around your social media accounts. Also not a good idea is having your password be: “The same as the one you use for your bank account.” Though I have to admit that my password hints are usually something like, “Oh, you know this!” which I laugh about every time I see it. TERRIBLE HINT.

Support The Billfold

The Billfold continues to exist thanks to support from our readers. Help us continue to do our work by making a monthly pledge on Patreon or a one-time-only contribution through PayPal.