Green Day, Slipknot, Blink-182 Fans Probably Need New Passwords

Worrying stuff on a couple of levels filtering its way online today, as Gizmodo reports that a new password-hacking tool, iDict, has made its way to coding/program repository GitHub with the capacity to crack users' Apple iCloud passwords.

The program is, thankfully, limited by its own (relatively small) 500-word-long "dictionary" of probable alphanumeric combinations, but there's bad news in there for unimaginative music fans — as Property Of Zack points out, Blink182 (and Blink-182) is among the passwords within iDict's brute-force cracking framework, but a closer look reveals that not just lazy pop-punk die-hards are at risk: Greenday1, Slipknot1, Nirvana1, Metallica1, Genesis1 (OK, that one could be a religious thing), Santana1 and Taylor13 (likely a reference to Taylor Swift's Twitter handle, which features the out-of-place "13") all make iDict's list of most likely password choices to test and potentially crack.

It's not just music fans in the crosshairs, though — a quick scan down the list shows an alarming number of people still, in the year 2015, apparently using strings such as "Password1" or "P@ssword" or "P4ssword" (several variations make the list), while wrestling fans (Austin316, JohnCena1), sports fans (Raiders1, Liverpool1), people who use first names or some form of the word "Princess", and, yes, even proud Australians (Australia1) stand to have their iCloud (and, well, Apple) accounts breached as a result of their incredibly poor online security skills.

Take a look at the complete list and make sure your favourite band/food/brand/show/actor/name/animal etc isn't likely to cause you any heartache, and then maybe rethink your password choices anyway.