Passwords you can't Use on Twitter

When you sign up for Twitter, there are certain passwords you can't use. Twitter will simply reject them as "Too Weak" or "Too Obvious". A strong password is very important for your safety and privacy, so make sure you choose a good password when signing up to an online service.

Here are the basics for choosing a good, strong password:

• Include both uppercase and lowercase letters.
• Include both letters and numbers.
• Include punctuation marks or symbols (#,!,%,^ - etc.).
  
• Do not include your login name or username, in any form (as-is, reversed, capitalized, doubled).
• Do not include your first name, surname or date of birth.
  
• Avoid words that can be found in a dictionary.
• Do not use a password that has been given as an example of a good password.

Here's the list of banned Twitter passwords, just so you know:

• 111111
• 11111111
• 112233
• 121212
• 123123
• 123456
• 1234567
• 12345678
• 131313
• 232323
• 654321
• 666666
• 696969
• 777777
• 7777777
• 8675309
• 987654
• aaaaaa
• abc123
• abc123
• abcdef
• abgrtyu
• access
• access14
• action
• albert
• alexis
• amanda
• amateur
• andrea
• andrew
• angela
• angels
• animal
• anthony
• apollo
• apples
• arsenal
• arthur
• asdfgh
• asdfgh
• ashley
• asshole
• august
• austin
• badboy
• bailey
• banana
• barney
• baseball
• batman
• beaver
• beavis
• bigcock
• bigdaddy
• bigdick
• bigdog
• bigtits
• birdie
• bitches
• biteme
• blazer
• blonde
• blondes
• blowjob
• blowme
• bond007
• bonnie
• booboo
• booger
• boomer
• boston
• brandon
• brandy
• braves
• brazil
• bronco
• broncos
• bulldog
• buster
• butter
• butthead
• calvin
• camaro
• cameron
• canada
• captain
• carlos
• carter
• casper
• charles
• charlie
• cheese
• chelsea
• chester
• chicago
• chicken
• cocacola
• coffee
• college
• compaq
• computer
• cookie
• cooper
• corvette
• cowboy
• cowboys
• crystal
• cumming
• cumshot
• dakota
• dallas
• daniel
• danielle
• debbie
• dennis
• diablo
• diamond
• doctor
• doggie
• dolphin
• dolphins
• donald
• dragon
• dreams
• driver
• eagle1
• eagles
• edward
• einstein
• erotic
• extreme
• falcon
• fender
• ferrari
• firebird
• fishing
• florida
• flower
• flyers
• football
• forever
• freddy
• freedom
• fucked
• fucker
• fucking
• fuckme
• fuckyou
• gandalf
• gateway
• gators
• gemini
• george
• giants
• ginger
• golden
• golfer
• gordon
• gregory
• guitar
• gunner
• hammer
• hannah
• hardcore
• harley
• heather
• helpme
• hentai
• hockey
• hooters
• horney
• hotdog
• hunter
• hunting
• iceman
• iloveyou
• internet
• iwantu
• jackie
• jackson
• jaguar
• jasmine
• jasper
• jennifer
• jeremy
• jessica
• johnny
• johnson
• jordan
• joseph
• joshua
• junior
• justin
• killer
• knight
• ladies
• lakers
• lauren
• leather
• legend
• letmein
• letmein
• little
• london
• lovers
• maddog
• madison
• maggie
• magnum
• marine
• marlboro
• martin
• marvin
• master
• matrix
• matthew
• maverick
• maxwell
• melissa
• member
• mercedes
• merlin
• michael
• michelle
• mickey
• midnight
• miller
• mistress
• monica
• monkey
• monkey
• monster
• morgan
• mother
• mountain
• muffin
• murphy
• mustang
• naked
• nascar
• nathan
• naughty
• ncc1701
• newyork
• nicholas
• nicole
• nipple
• nipples
• oliver
• orange
• packers
• panther
• panties
• parker
• password
• password
• password1
• password12
• password123
• patrick
• peaches
• peanut
• pepper
• phantom
• phoenix
• player
• please
• pookie
• porsche
• prince
• princess
• private
• purple
• pussies
• qazwsx
• qwerty
• qwertyui
• rabbit
• rachel
• racing
• raiders
• rainbow
• ranger
• rangers
• rebecca
• redskins
• redsox
• redwings
• richard
• robert
• rocket
• rosebud
• runner
• rush2112
• russia
• samantha
• sammy
• samson
• sandra
• saturn
• scooby
• scooter
• scorpio
• scorpion
• secret
• sexsex
• shadow
• shannon
• shaved
• sierra
• silver
• skippy
• slayer
• smokey
• snoopy
• soccer
• sophie
• spanky
• sparky
• spider
• squirt
• srinivas
• startrek
• starwars
• steelers
• steven
• sticky
• stupid
• success
• suckit
• summer
• sunshine
• superman
• surfer
• swimming
• sydney
• taylor
• tennis
• teresa
• tester
• testing
• theman
• thomas
• thunder
• thx1138
• tiffany
• tigers
• tigger
• tomcat
• topgun
• toyota
• travis
• trouble
• trustno1
• tucker
• turtle
• twitter
• united
• vagina
• victor
• victoria
• viking
• voodoo
• voyager
• walter
• warrior
• welcome
• whatever
• william
• willie
• wilson
• winner
• winston
• winter
• wizard
• xavier
• xxxxxx
• xxxxxxxx
• yamaha
• yankee
• yankees
• yellow
• zxcvbn
• zxcvbnm
• zzzzzz

The Sin of the Simple Password

This is a dialogue I remember very well, and I have actually quoted it on several posts I wrote in Hebrew:

PHREAK
Alright, what are the three most commonly used
passwords?

JOEY
Love, secret, and uh, sex. But not in that
order, necessarily, right?

CEREAL
Yeah but don't forget God. System operators
love to use God. It's that whole male ego
thing.

This dialogue is from the movie Hackers, which was screened in the mid-90s. You'd think that 10 years later, computer users will be a bit smarter.

Well, they are not. A while ago, What's My Pass published a very interesting post, containing some of the most stupid passwords ever. The post was titled Top 500 worst passwords. A list is shown there, with a distribution of idiotic passwords, that even a blind mouse can figure out. Not surprisingly - the ultra-smart password - 123456 - is at the top of the list.

The rest of the list isn't very reassuring, either. It contains gems like qwerty, abc123, xxxxxx and lots more.

A few days ago, Robert Graham presented an analysis of the passwords revealed by the phpBB hack. It's not surprising to discover that the same stupid passwords are there, as well. The top 20 passwords from phpBB were:

3.03% "123456"
2.13% "password"
1.45% "phpbb"
0.91% "qwerty"
0.82% "12345"
0.59% "12345678"
0.58% "letmein"
0.53% "1234"
0.50% "test"
0.43% "123"
0.36% "trustno1"
0.33% "dragon"
0.31% "abc123"
0.31% "123456789"
0.31% "111111"
0.30% "hello"
0.30% "monkey"
0.28% "master"
0.22% "killer"
0.22% "123123"

The phpBB system doesn't require a certain password length or complexity from its users. You can use any password you want, and this explains the analysis.

In a day and age when we have to remember log-ins and passwords to dozens of sites, it might be a good idea to choose 2-3 strong passwords that you can remember - and use them. Don't be tempted to use simple, short passwords. They can be easily discovered - especially by people who know you.

Here are the basics for choosing a good, strong password:

• Include both uppercase and lowercase letters.
• Include both letters and numbers.
• Include punctuation marks or symbols (#,!,%,^ - etc.).
  
• Do not include your login name or username, in any form (as-is, reversed, capitalized, doubled).
• Do not include your first name, surname or date of birth.
  
• Avoid words that can be found in a dictionary.
• Do not use a password that has been given as an example of a good password.

Here are some interesting and useful password tools:

• Secure Random Password Generator - choose the characters you want in your password, and you'll get a strong password. It won't be easy to remember - but it might be worth the effort.
• Another Strong Password Generator
• Ultra High Security Password Generator - for seriously paranoid people :)
  

All in One: Anti-Malware Toolkit

Here is a program that automatically downloads all of the needed programs to help you clean your computer and have them running at peak performance again.

It's called Anti-Malware Toolkit, and it organizes all your security and cleanup needs in one program. As you may well know, these days it's not enough to protect your computer with just anti-virus. You need a firewall, history cleaner, registry cleaner and more. Anti-Malware Toolkit helps you download everything you need, and keep track of it all.

>> Download Anti-Malware Toolkit here

Top 10 Worst Computer Worms of All Time

A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program. It uses a network to send copies of itself to other computers, and it may do so without any user intervention. Unlike a virus, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program. Worms almost always cause harm to the network, if only by consuming bandwidth, whereas viruses almost always corrupt or modify files on a targeted computer (Wikipedia).

So, what are the worst worms that ever hit the computer universe? According to The Free Dictionary, the worst one was Morris Worm, AKA The Great Worm. On November 2nd, 1988, a shy programmer named Robert T. Morris was set to unleash a digital plague that infected 10 percent of the internet. The Morris case involved a 99-line program written to infiltrate Digital VAX and Sun 3 systems. The so-called worm didn't contain any malicious code. Instead, Morris simply wanted to prove that he could use programs like sendmail to propagate a worm across the Internet.

But when Morris released the program on the Internet, a design flaw caused the worm to reproduce. It quickly penetrated 10% of the Internet and bogged down thousands of systems. Dozens of major colleges, government facilities and research centers fell victim to the worm.

You can read more about it here.

Protect yourself from worms and viruses!

The Ultimate Anti-Virus and Security List

The good people of Mashable have composed a very through list of anti-virus, anti-spyware and security tools.

There are many good security tools out there - a lot of them are free. I personally use:

• AVG free as an anti-virus.
• Kerio as a firewall (no, the windows firewall isn't enough).
• Spybot and Hijackthis as anti-spyware. Seems like Spybot has gotten "tired" over the years. Hijackthis is only for those of you who know what they are doing, by the way.
  
• AVG Rootkit removal - for the one (and hopefully the last) time I got hit by a scary rootkit.
• Regmon - for when the shit really hits the fan, and there are no other programs who can help me. Kids, don't try this at home!