Roughly 150,000 unimaginative Americans made the simple six-digit password their key to unlocking their computer or cell phone — which would make it real easy for hackers to guess.

Also making the Top 10 dumbest passwords this year are “Password,” “12345678,” “qwerty” and — perhaps the favorite of those with limited recall — “12345,” according to a California tech company.

Those with just a little imagination picked a password from pop culture, the company revealed.

As “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” takes cinemas by storm, “starwars” became No. 16 on the company’s Top 100 worst passwords of 2017.

“Unfortunately, while the newest episode may be a fantastic addition to the ‘Star Wars’ franchise, ‘starwars’ is a dangerous password to use,” said Morgan Slain, CEO of SplashData, which compiled the list from the millions of passwords stolen in huge cyberattacks and then released publicly.

“Hackers are using common terms from pop culture and sports to break into accounts online because they know many people are using those easy-to-remember words,” Slain said.

Other notable bad passwords include “letmein” (No. 7), “login” (No. 14) and “trustno1” (No. 25).

On the raunchier side of things, “a–hole” made the list at No. 34, and “f–kyou” was at No. 52.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) notes that we tend to come up with characters that are easily guessed because humans have only a limited ability to memorize complicated strings of characters.

In response, online services often force users to adopt increasingly complex and hard-to-remember passwords. This, however, has not greatly reduced hacking numbers.

In other words, previous guidelines have resulted in passwords that are harder for humans to remember while making them no more difficult for computers to guess.

In May, NIST released new guidelines calling for the elimination of special character requirements, and urged online services to allow for longer passwords that can include spaces. Strings of random words are easier for humans to remember, and harder for computers to guess.

So, if you decide to stick with “starwars” as your password, may the force be with you.

source: New York Post

These phrases are from the text. Can you fill in the missing words?

1. strings of …… words

2. a …… ability to memorize

3. simple six-digit ……

4. takes cinemas by …..

5. are …… guessed

Key

1. random

2. limited

3. password

4. storm

5. easily

The students from a private IT academy in the southeastern city of Mariupol spent three months dismantling around 100 keyboards to make a replica of Jobs’ face.

“At first we had chosen together with the students, whose portrait is depicted. It was decided that it would definitely be Steve Jobs’. The creation began with the dismantling of the old keyboards that brought the students of our Academy, and ended with new ones, straight from the shop”, – said the head of the project Igor Smugly.

“When I began, I spent around three hours to glue two lines of keys,” student Ivan Kuchugura told television channel TRK Ukraine. “I burnt my fingers as it was hot glue…I had to take breaks…because I had pain in my back so it was very difficult.”

The artwork, which includes the words “Apple”, “Steve Jobs” and “iPhone” was hung on a classroom wall at the academy. The tile size of it is 1.37 x 0,99 m.

Can you match the words with their synonyms?

Key: 

1. c.

2. e.

3. a.

4. b.

5. d.

Microsoft’s ‘Get It Done’ campaign stresses how easy technology has made it to work from anywhere, but many question if doing so is a good idea. Featured in it are statistics that show the percentages of people who keep plugging away regardless of where they are or what they’re doing. Those numbers were gathered by Microsoft with the help of Harris Interactive, Inc. Researchers found that among those polled 55% said they need the ability to get work done regardless of where they are. For 19 percent of them that includes in the bathroom. Nearly half said they’ve remotely participated in meetings while on vacation. Over a quarter reported that they’d performed work-related tasks while out for happy hour. Though the ad campaign certainly shows the flexibility technology provides, it’s also raised questions about whether taking advantage of it is a good idea. Among the concerns expressed is that individuals are increasingly packing more work into their day at the expense of their work performance and their health.

Can you find the words or expressions in the text that have the same or similar meaning?

1. one fourth of something

2. from a distance

3. worry

4. to take part

5. to make use of

6. to collect

7. to keep working hard

8. to interview in a survey

9. the ability to change easily

10. not depending on something

Key:

1. quarter

2. remotely

3. concern

4. to participate

5. to take advantage of

6. to gather

7. to plug away

8. to poll

9. flexibility

10. regardless of something