The worst passwords of 2015 Credit.com By Jeanine Skowronski

Password

Despite all of the data breaches and scams that have proliferated over the last few years, we sure love our bad passwords.

For the fifth year in a row, "123456" and "password" topped password manager provider SplashData's annual "worst passwords" list. Its latest version was compiled from more than 2 million leaked passwords mostly held by users in North America and Western Europe during the year. New and notable entrants include "starwars," "solo" and "princess"  — undoubtedly tied to the massively successful debut of Star Wars: The Force Awakens this year.
Meanwhile, other repeat offenders were "dragon" (No. 16), "111111" (No. 14), and "letmein" (No. 19).
Of course, it wasn't all bad news on the password front this year, as SplashData notes that websites and users were at least trying to be a bit more secure by lengthening their terrible passwords.
"For example, '1234567890', '1qaz2wsx' (first two columns of main keys on a standard keyboard), and 'qwertyuiop' (top row of keys on a standard keyboard) all appear in the top 25 list for the first time," SplashData wrote in a press release, before pointing out that "they are each based on simple patterns that would be easily guessable by hackers."
The top 10 worst passwords of 2015 are:

1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. 12345
6. 123456789
7. football
8. 1234
9. 1234567
10. baseball

How to Set Strong Passwords
Strong passwords are important because they help keep hackers from getting into important accounts and/or getting a hold of sensitive personal information that can be used to steal your money or, worse, your identity. A strong password generally mixes letter, numbers and special characters, uses both upper- and lowercase letters and is at least 10 characters long. They also don't include your name, birthdate, common words, simple pop culture references (ahem, The Force Awakens) or any information (like, say, the name of your dog or cat) that can be easily found on social media.

Remember, it's also in your best interest to change passwords often and to refrain from using the same one across accounts. Plus, if you have any reason to believe your personal or payment information has been compromised, you should keep a close eye on your financial accounts and your credit report. You can do the latter by pulling your credit reports for free each year at AnnualCreditReport.com and viewing your two free credit scores each month on Credit.com. Signs your identity has been stolen include a sudden drop in credit scores, mysterious lines of credit you've never opened and unfamiliar addresses.

Culled from Credit.com

The 25 best jobs in America, according to Glassdoor- By Julie Verhage

.

View photo

Thinkstock

Nearly half the people in the U.S. will be looking for a new job in 2016. Many will take into account everything from salaries to career prospects when they start their search. Career website Glassdoor has done some of the work for them. To compile its second annual list of the 25 Best Jobs in America, the company accounted for earnings potential, career opportunities, and the number of openings for a given job function.

Data scientist took the top spot for 2016, climbing from No. 9 on last year's list, and knocking last year's winner, physician assistant, down to seventh place. Jobs in the growing fields of technology and health care dominated the list, although there some finance and marketing jobs appeared in the mix. 

More from Bloomberg.com: The North Dakota Crude Oil That's Worth Almost Nothing
Jobs that dropped off the list this year were database administrator, sales manager, mechanical engineer, and physical therapist. New to the list are engagement manager, analytics manager, and UX designer.

It's hard to find data scientists that don't like their jobs among the anonymous reviews submitted to Glassdoor. Sentiments such as this are common: "I get to work every day on interesting problems together with incredibly smart and committed coworkers." The specific employer can make a big difference. Data scientists at Airbnb, crowned the best place to work by Glassdoor about a month ago, are particularly happy. "There are a lot of things that make my job great: a majority of the employees at Airbnb are committed to the company's mission, the benefits and perks are the best you'll find ... there's a lot of flexibility in when and how you work." 

More from Bloomberg.com: Why an Ex-Google Coder Makes Twice as Much Freelancing
Other jobs that cracked the top 25 include tax manager, mobile developer, marketing manager, and electrical engineer. Here's a look at how the top 25 stacked up, according to Glassdoor's 5-point scale.

View gallery

.

Earning potential is a big factor when considering jobs. Here's a look at what the top 25 jobs take home annually. Software development manager took the top spot, with a salary of $135,000. The lowest salary was $69,500, for technical account manager. 

View gallery

.

More from Bloomberg.com: These Are the World's Most Innovative Economies

As for what career paths to avoid, job seekers should pay attention to some of the lower-ranking jobs, such as insurance agent or reporter. The overall job score for the four "worst jobs for 2016" ranged from 1.6 to 2.1, and here are their median base salaries.

View gallery

.

More on Glassdoor's methodology can be found at the bottom of its online report. 

Culled  from Bloomberg.com

Gold edges higher as Asian stocks retreat, oil extends rout -By Manolo Serapio Jr

 

.

View photo

An employee poses for photographs with a one kilogram gold bar at the Korea Gold Exchange in Seoul, South …

By Manolo Serapio Jr

MANILA (Reuters) - Gold edged higher on Wednesday as a further fall in equities and oil burnished bullion's safe-haven draw, although slow physical demand from Asia kept the metal well under this month's peak.
Asian stocks slid to a four-year trough as U.S. crude oil plumbed a fresh 2003 low, underlining worries about the global economy. The dollar also retreated.
The International Monetary Fund cut its global growth forecasts for the third time in less than a year after China's economy grew at its slowest rate in a quarter of a century in 2015.
Spot gold was up 0.4 percent at $1,091.36 an ounce by 0630 GMT.
U.S. gold for February delivery gained 0.2 percent to $1,091.70 an ounce.
"Gold's safe haven rationale is back in vogue," Citigroup analysts said in their 2016 commodities outlook, amid fears over the Chinese economy, weak equity markets and geopolitical tensions in the Arabian Gulf.
"While geopolitical issues typically tend to be short-lived in terms of lending support to gold prices, we expect ongoing global macro concerns to lend support this quarter, added by a modestly more benign U.S. dollar outlook," they said.
Gold scaled a two-month high of $1,112 an ounce on Jan. 8 and has traded below that level since, facing resistance at around $1,090 that some analysts attribute to slow Asian physical buying.
Demand for gold in China, the world's biggest consumer, is seen dented by an economy that could slow further. Nomura expects the world's second-largest economy to grow at 5.8 percent this year against 6.9 percent in 2015.
There is a modest premium to world gold prices in China, and prices in India, the second-largest gold consumer, are at a discount to the global benchmark, wrote HSBC analyst James Steel.
But Steel said the ability of gold to cut the bulk of losses, persistent risk-off sentiment and a revival in the euro suggest further price gains.

"The $1,100/oz is a stiff resistance level, however, and while we believe it will be overcome, it may take some time," he said.

Spot silver was flat at $14.015 an ounce and palladium slipped 0.7 percent to $488.61. Platinum, which touched a seven-year low of $812.95 an ounce on Monday, dropped 0.6 percent to $818.50.

(Reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr.; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Anand Basu)

Source: Reuters