123456, password & abc123

Yup, they've caught up with your wily ways. Finally they've have been able to work out just what your password is, well, what the average password is anyway:

Amichai Shulman is the chief technology officer at Imperva, which makes software for thwarting hackers. Recently, he undertook a study of 32 million passwords stolen by an unknown hacker from Rockyou!, an online service that makes widgets for social networking sites like Facebook.

The list is depressing testimony to our collective lack of creativity in the arena of personal security.

“I guess it’s just a flaw in human genetics,” Shulman told the New York Times.

Personally I use an amalgam of my age, the year, my phone number, my sister's name (she has 5) and the postcode for my last abode.

Most people aren't so 'cautious' and use some very obvious passwords. Here are the top 20 in order of popularity:

1. 123456

2. 12345

3. 123456789

4. password

5. iloveyou

6. princess

7. rockyou

8. 1234567

9. 12345678

10. abc123

11. nicole

12. daniel

13. babygirl

14. monkey

15. jessica

16. lovely

17. michael

18. ashley

19. 654321

20. qwerty

If your password is in the above, I suggest you change it. Now!!

kthanxbai!