There was a great scene in a movie or TV show where the nerd hacker was trying to access the secret files of the bad guy.  He said it could take days… and then he started trying different combinations. His name backwards, no. His name and wifes name, no. His name and wifes birthday, no.  Anyway, just by knowing some background on the person he cracked the password easily.

OK, yes it was fiction, but I’ll bet a dedicated hacker might be able to guess your password.

Is it on this list?

• Your middle name
• Your Name spelled backwards
• Phone numbers
• The word “password”
• You kid’s birthday
• Single or combination uses of love, god, sex, and money, such as lovemoney or sexgod
• qwerty
• abc123
• password1
• asdf
• car license
• letmein
• yourname1
• default

The indispensable Lorelle at Word Press says that these are the most commonly used passwords! But she also writes at length about how to make your password more secure.

With all of the hype over security vulnerabilities and patches, virus scanning programs, firewalls, and protecting passwords and usernames, people are still really stupid when it comes to choosing and disclosing their usernames and passwords.

The strongest passwords are created with letters and numbers, or even with characters such as !@#$%*(). There are also a variety of free online programs that will help you create a complex and not easily broken password. Unfortunately, remembering such passwords is more challenging.

She goes on to give some excellent tips on creating a secure – but easy to recall password.

A password is like a toothbrush: Choose a good one and don’t share it.