Network Security

‘Pass’ words: Philadelphia Eagles are the NFL team most often referenced in credentials

Proud Philadelphia Eagles fans might want to think of a more secure way to honor their Super Bowl-winning NFL franchise than using their team name as a user password.

But an analysis of 61.5 million anonymized passwords found more references to "Eagles" and other team-related keywords than any other NFL franchise, according to a just released "NFL Password Power Rankings" report.

Digital identity and password service Dashlane published the analysis based on a data set compiled by Gang Wang, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. (Passwords can also include terms like mascot names, a Dashlane blog post explains.)

The Dallas Cowboys inspired the second highest number of passwords, followed by the Raiders, Dolphins and Steelers.

The use of a generic password that consists of a commonly used dictionary word is typically considered an insecure practice because it often can be guessed or brute-forced with relative ease.

At the bottom of the rankings are the Houston Texans. So go celebrate, Cleveland Browns fans -- this time you're not last!

In addition to professional football, Dashlane also looked at professional football... as in soccer. Among all the teams in the Premiere League, Liverpool inspired the most passwords, followed by Chelsea and Arsenal.

Bradley Barth

As director of multimedia content strategy at CyberRisk Alliance, Bradley Barth develops content for online conferences, webcasts, podcasts video/multimedia projects — often serving as moderator or host. For nearly six years, he wrote and reported for SC Media as deputy editor and, before that, senior reporter. He was previously a program executive with the tech-focused PR firm Voxus. Past journalistic experience includes stints as business editor at Executive Technology, a staff writer at New York Sportscene and a freelance journalist covering travel and entertainment. In his spare time, Bradley also writes screenplays.

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