Blink-182, Metallica, & Slipknot are among the most-hacked passwords

Blink-182 and Metallica are among some of the popular musical artists to feature on a list of the most-hacked computer passwords.

Look, we get it. Choosing a password can be hard. After all, how often have you tried to create a password, only to be told you need a mixture of numbers, characters, capital letters, and the zodiac signs of English royals?

Of course, most folks would make their password something easy to remember, perhaps adding in a rogue number at the end to really throw off those crafty hackers.

Sure, we can’t all make our passwords complicated, uncrackable strings of characters, and we often resort to simplistic things, like words or our favourite bands.

However, a new study has revealed not only some of the most-hacked passwords going around, but also shown us which musical artists should stop being used as your secret code.

Don’t do this.

According to a new study from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, while typical brainbusters like ‘123456’, ‘qwerty’ and ‘password’ have all topped the list of most-hacked passwords, so have a few famous musical artists.

In fact, the 106th most-hacked password turns out to be Blink-182, the iconic pop-punk act whose letter and number-featuring name seemingly serves as a rather perfect password on paper.

However, the list doesn’t stop there though, with 50 Cent featuring at #220, Metallica and Slipknot appearing back-to-back at #365 and #366, while Slayer features at #895, and Eminem ranks in at #934.

Of course, this news apparently doesn’t sit well with members of Blink-182, with frontman Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker reacting to this news with a bit of shock and disappointment from their security-minded fans.

https://twitter.com/markhoppus/status/1120301476998303744

🤷🏻‍♂️

— Travis Barker (@travisbarker) April 22, 2019

The study, conducted on behalf of the NCSC, aims to help reduce the number of security methods by raising awareness of the methods used by hackers.

In a statement, NCSC technical director Dr. Ian Levy explained that if you’re using any of these commonly-used phrases, you should likely change your password immediately.

“We understand that cyber security can feel daunting to a lot of people, but the NCSC has published lots of easily applicable advice to make you much less vulnerable,” Dr. Levy stated.

“Password re-use is a major risk that can be avoided – nobody should protect sensitive data with something that can be guessed, like their first name, local football team or favourite band.”

“Using hard-to-guess passwords is a strong first step and we recommend combining three random but memorable words,” he concluded. “Be creative and use words memorable to you, so people can’t guess your password.”

Of course, while their appearance right next to each other on this list is cause for security concerns, the only time you should see Metallica and Slipknot back-to-back is when they hit up Australia later this year for a long-awaited double-header tour. Check out all the details below.

Check out Blink-182’s ‘What’s My Age Again?’:

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.

Subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine

Subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine