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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

BBB Tip of the Week: Cracking your passwords

Modern life is full of minor irritations. One that makes me crazy is trying to remember all my passwords. If a thief broke into your house, would they find a handwritten list sitting by your computer?

Or, could they guess your password(s)?

According to the Internet Crime Reporting Center (IC3), hackers have a pretty good idea of what easy, simple passwords someone like me might use. Check the following list of the 25 most common Internet passwords. These search terms are at the top of hackers’ lists to try when accessing programs in your computer. The report is based on information from law enforcement and complaints submitted to IC3.

If you see a password or two of yours on this list, it would be a good idea to change it.

1. password; 2. 123456; 3. 12345678; 4. qwerty; 5. abc123; 6. monkey; 7. 1234567; 8. letmein; 9. trustno1; 10. dragon; 11. baseball; 12. 111111; 13. iloveyou; 14. master; 15. sunshine; 16. ashley; 17. bailey; 18. passw0rd; 19. shadow; 20. 123123; 21. 654321; 22. superman; 23. qazwsx; 24. michael; 25. Football. The Internet Crime Complaint Center is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center and is funded in part by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. In 2011, IC3 received more than 300,000 complaints for a total adjusted dollar loss of $485.3 million.

The 2011 IC3 Internet Crime Report reveals both the scope of online crime and IC3’s battle against it. Their press release says “the most common victim complaints included FBI-related scams, identity theft and advance fee fraud. IC3 received and processed more than 26,000 complaints per month. Based on victim complaints, the top five states were California (34,169), Florida (20,034), Texas (18,477), New York (15,056) and Ohio (12,661). Victims in California reported the highest dollar losses with a total of $70.5 million. For victims reporting financial losses, the average was $4,187.”

Read IC3’s full report here: http://cyberwarzone. com/cyberwarfare/internet-crime-complaint- center-ic3-2011- internet-crime-report

For more information or to report scams: Visit the BBB website at href=”http://www.bbb.org/”>www.bbb.org. Call (509)455-4200 or (800) 356-1007. Or sign up to receive our Scam Alerts at www.bbb.org/scam.

Holly Doering, BBB