The 25 worst passwords of the year revealed

You've heard it a thousand times before: the key to Internet security is having a cast iron password -- a combination of letters, numbers and possibly symbols that isn't just some variation on your name. Hopefully you heed this advice and keep your online banking details and Facebook profile out of the hands of bad 'uns; what's clear is that millions of Internet users patently do not.

SplashData, a firm working in Internet security, has just released a list of the 25 worst passwords of 2011. And they're really, really bad.

The company compiled the list by browsing files of stolen passwords posted online by hackers, and as DailyFinance points out, even with a dizzying array of snooping technology in their corner, hackers still prefer to get at your information through these easy-to-guess passwords ('the low-hanging fruit').

Without further ado, here's the list. Read it and weep -- and then change your password to something other than 'password', for heaven's sake.

1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey [we're not sure why this one is so high up the list, but whatever]
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1 [hahahahaha]
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd [oh, you're so clever, substituting a number for a letter]
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman [the real Superman would use a far better password, like 'f0rtre550f501itud3']
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

It's not hard to create a decent password: as we said above, a combination of letters, numbers and symbols is best (with a mix of upper and lower case letters if possible, too). Avoid names, including place names, and dates, as hackers are likely to try these first. It's also a good idea to use different passwords for different services, so if one is discovered the hacker doesn't have access to every single one of your online accounts. Oh, and changing your passwords every few months will help.

Had any issues with your passwords being stolen by light-fingered hackers? Let us know about it in the comments below (don't tell us your current password though… Jeeeeez).