If you've been using ‘123456' or ‘password' when signing up for websites you may want to consider changing it.

Earlier this week American-based software company SplashData released its fifth annual ‘Worst Passwords List' for 2015 which highlights the insecure habits of internet users.

Passwords ‘123456' and ‘password' have topped SplashData's annual ‘Worst Passwords List' for 2015. Photo: File

The list of the most popular and commonly used passwords were discovered and compiled following the data breaches that were released online over the past year.

Rounding out the top five were passwords ‘12345678', ‘qwerty' and ‘12345'.

While George Lucas should be smiling with ‘starwars' making it on to the list for the first time, coming in at 25.

Coming up with a strong password can be difficult, but Tauranga Tech founder Ben Rickard says there is a simple approach you can take.

'The first thing I recommend is not using the same password for everything,” he explains.

'I recommend using a set formula where say the first six or so characters at the start of every password is always the same, then the last characters depend on what website or service you're accessing.”

Using ‘sunlive' as an example, when signing up for internet banking the password would be ‘sunlivebank', for email ‘sunliveemail', or the SunLive news website ‘sunlivenews'.

He also recommends using a combination of letters and numbers

'So every password is different but you can remember it because you're associating the password with that site.”

Ben says one thing that is becoming increasingly common is multifactor authentication for websites.

After entering your password, users will then either have to answer a security question, or may receive a text message with a unique code which they then have to enter to gain access.

'Turning on multifactor authentication can make sites more secure as it's not only the password someone has to steal.

One last tip from Ben: when creating passwords, especially work passwords, you may want to avoid using extremely personal information or phrases you wouldn't say in front of your mother.

'People don't think about the fact they may have to share it with someone. It might be a work password and they have to tell someone what it is, which can sometimes be quite embarrassing.”

SplashData says the passwords which feature in the list were mostly from North American and Western European users.

THE WORST PASSWORDS OF 2015

1. 123456 (unchanged from 2014)
2. password (unchanged)
3. 12345678 (Up 1)
4. qwerty (Up 1)
5. 12345 (Down 2)
6. 123456789 (Unchanged)
7. football (Up 3)
8. 1234 (Down 1)
9. 1234567 (Up 2)
10. baseball (Down 2)
11. welcome (New)
12. 1234567890 (New)
13. abc123 (Up 1)
14. 111111 (Up 1)
15. 1qaz2wsx (New)
16. dragon (Down 7)
17. master (Up 2)
18. monkey (Down 6)
19. letmein (Down 6)
20. login (New)
21. princess (New)
22. qwertyuiop (New)
23. solo (New)
24. passw0rd (New)
25. starwars (New)