If This Is Your Password, Change It Immediately

Your elementary school. A pet's name. Your favorites from Friends. Literally anything is better than the word "password" as an electronic password — yet for some strange reason, Americans keep using it.

The list compiles millions of stolen passwords revealed by hackers in 2014 and ranks them in popularity. The top five will make you slam your head against the wall, with "123456" in first place, followed by "password," "12345," "12345678" and "qwerty" in fifth place. 

Here's the full list, which make up a whopping 2.2% of all exposed passwords, with the change in usage from 2013 in parentheses:

1. 123456 (unchanged)

2. password (unchanged)

3. 12345 (up 17)

4. 12345678 (down one place)

5. qwerty (down one place)

6. 123456789 (unchanged)

7. 1234 (up nine places)

8. baseball (new)

9. dragon (new)

10. football (new)

11. 1234567 (down four places)

12. monkey (up five places)

13. letmein (up one place)

14. abc123 (down nine places)

15. 111111 (down eight places)

16. mustang (new)

17. access (new)

18. shadow (unchanged)

19. master (new)

20. michael (new)

21. superman (new)

22. 696969 (new)

23. 123123 (down 12 places)

24. batman (new)

25. trustno1 (down one place)

Stop making bad passwords. SplashData told Engadget that people are actually using fewer "bad passwords" than in years past because of high-profile data breaches at mega-retailers like Home Depot and Target. 

To better protect yourself, the firm recommends passwords that are a mix of eight characters and aren't simple words or number combinations. Also, it's better to change up passwords for each different site or use a password manager service, like, conveniently, SplashID

Whatever you do, don't use "password."