Better think twice before choosing a password for emails, online bank accounts and airline tickets.

    Passwords that show no imagination or distinctiveness are easy prey for information pirates, a new US study says.

    A statistical analysis of 28,000 passwords recently stolen from a popular US website and posted on the Internet reveals that people often do the easy thing.

    It found that 16 percent took a first name as a password, often their own or one of their children, according to the study published by Information Week.

    Another 14 percent relied on the easiest keyboard combinations to remember such as "1234" or "12345678." For those using English keyboards, "QWERTY", was popular. Likewise, "AZERTY" scored with people with European keyboards.

    Five percent of the stolen passwords were names of television shows or stars popular with young people like "hannah," inspired by singer Hannah Montana. "Pokemon," "Matrix," and "Ironman" were others.

    The word "password," or easy to guess variations like "password1," accounted for four percent.

    Three percent of the passwords expressed attitudes like "I don't care," "Whatever," "Yes" or "No."

    There were sentimental choices -- "Iloveyou" -- and their opposite -- "Ihateyou."

    Robert Graham, of the company Errata Security, which did the analysis and published the conclusions, advises that to better protect against cyber intrusions: "choose a password that is longer than eight characters with one capital letter and one symbol."

    在設置E-mail、網上銀行和在線購機票的密碼時，最好要多想想。

    美國一項最新研究表明，沒有想象力或不夠新奇的密碼容易被盜。

    日前，一項針對2.8萬個被盜密碼的數據分析發現，人們總是愛圖省事。這些密碼是最近從美國一個人氣網站盜取的，并被貼在了網上。

    這項在《信息周刊》上公布的研究發現，16%的人用名字作密碼，其中大多數是自己或孩子的名字。

    另有14%的人為了方便記憶，選擇了最簡單的組合如“1234”或“12345678”。使用美式鍵盤的人愛用“QWERTY”作密碼，而使用歐式鍵盤的人則青睞于使用“AZERTY”。

    在被盜密碼中，有5%是電視節目名或年輕人喜愛的明星的名字，比如歌星漢娜•蒙塔娜的名字“hannah”。也有人選擇Pokemon、Matrix和Ironman等等。

    有4%的人選擇password或容易被猜出的變體如password1作為密碼。

    3%的密碼表達的是一種態度，比如“I don't care（我不在乎）”、“Whatever（無所謂）”、“Yes（是）”或“No（不是）”。

    還有一些是表達情感的，如“Iloveyou”和“Ihateyou”.

    開展并公布該研究的Errata Security公司的羅伯特•格拉漢姆建議，為了更好地抵御網絡侵擾，最好“選擇長度不少于八個字的密碼，同時加入一個大寫字母和一個符號。”