Kylie Jenner

Dashlane Announces Inaugural “Top 10 Celebrity P@ssholes™ of the Year”

Drake, Kylie Jenner, NFL, John Podesta All Make List of the Biggest Password Blunders of 2016

NEW YORK / via PRNewswire /  What do Drake, Kylie Jenner, John Podesta, and the NFL have in common? Aside from millions of Twitter followers, these high-profile celebrities and organizations made the biggest password fails of 2016, but they also highlight the importance of strong passwords in protecting our digital lives.

Below, we’ve listed the 10 people and organizations who’ve made our inaugural Celebrity P@ssholes list.

Dashlane, the award-winning password manager and leader in online identity management, announces its inaugural “P@ssholes of the Year” list. The list highlights the high-profile people and organizations that experienced the biggest password-related blunders of 2016.

 


P@ssholes

Passwords and cybersecurity aren’t the sexiest topics in the world, and even the most technically savvy user often finds it difficult to understand the best practices in these fields. Our goal in releasing the P@ssholes List is to draw attention to many high-profile, yet common, password gaffes that are often easily preventable.

While it can be amusing to have a little tongue-in-cheek fun at the expense of celebrities, the fact of the matter is that most people are guilty of making the errors our P@ssholes made. Whether it’s using a weak and easily guessed password, or reusing a password that was leaked in a previous breach, all of our P@sshole cases highlight the important role passwords play in our digital lives.


Top 10 P@ssholes of 2016

  1. Drake, Katy Perry, OurMine Victims - If you’re reading this, it’s too late… Summer 16 saw dozens of celebrities suffer Twitter takeovers by the OurMine hackers. The cause? Weak and reused passwords from old MySpace accounts. Drake and Katy Perry were the two most high-profile celebrities who didn’t take care of passwords and lost controlla of their accounts. Chelsea Handler, Channing Tatum, and Lana Del Rey were also affected. Hey celebrities, use a password manager. You can thank us later.
    Canadian rapper Drake
  2. National Football League - The NFL had to scramble like Russell Wilson to secure their Twitter account after hackers announced that Sheriff Commissioner Roger Goodell was dead. They could have blocked the breach attempt if they tackled passwords the proper way as unsportsmanlike hackers got in by cracking the email of an employee who handles social media. No end zone celebrations for the No-Fun-League after this incident.

  3. Big Websites: AdultFriendFinder, Dropbox, MySpace, LinkedIn, Yahoo! - Remember MySpace? Hackers do, and said Yahoo when they LinkedIn to the more than 2billion usernames, passwords, and email addresses that stemmed from breaches at these companies. Millions of people had to update their passwords to avoid putting their friends, reputations, and connections, both professional and private, at risk.
  4. John Podesta - The Chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was the victim of a classic phishing email. As a result, his Gmail account was leaked for the world to see - an event that probably altered the course of the U.S. presidential election. This classic case shows that (fire) walls can’t keep all of the intruders out. #ImWithStrongPasswords

  5. Kylie Jenner - The youngest member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan also had her Twitter account hacked by the OurMine hacker group. In keeping up with terrible celebrity PR moves, she immediately took to Snapchat to proclaim, “I don’t really care, I’m just letting them (hackers) have fun.” That’s precisely the advice Millennials do NOT need to hear. Our advice, Kylie? Keep your lips sealed and your accounts protected.
  6. Tech Leaders: Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Daniel Elk, Jack Dorsey, Travis Kalanick - We trust tech companies to secure our personal data, but that faith is put to the test when the leaders of some of the world’s most popular companies use bad passwords to protect their own accounts. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook made headlines this year for presumably using his daughter’s first words to protect his Twitter and Pinterest accounts. But let’s not forget about, Sundar Pichai (Google), Daniel Elk (Spotify), Jack Dorsey (Twitter), and Travis Kalanick (Uber)— who all had their social media accounts hacked this year. Time for big tech leaders to get stronger passwords before they get put in the unfriend zone.

  7. Houston Astros – The Houston Astros of Major League Baseball had their online database of player statistics hacked by a former executive of the St. Louis Cardinals. The hacker, Christopher Correa, who was recently convicted on federal charges, used the password of a former Cardinals employee who had recently joined the Astros. This is a grand slam password fail. It’s not astrophysics folks; reusing passwords never leads to a perfect cybersecurity game.
  8. Harry Styles - While no one is iPerfect, protecting your iCloud account with a weak password will only take you in One Direction; hacked. This year, people got access to Styles’ files when an iCloud account associated with him was breached. Rough seas were ahead for Harry, as pictures from an intimate boating trip with Kendall Jenner were splashed around the world. You know what really makes you beautiful, Harry? A strong password.
  9. Jack Johnson - More like Hack Johnson. One-half of the pop-rap duo Jack & Jack (and not the affable adult alternative artist), had one of the worst password stunts of the year when he requested that his 4+ million Twitter followers send him their passwords so he could put a personalized video in their feeds. It’s safe to say he doesn’t know Jack about password security.
  10. Tom Hiddleston - Never in our wildest dreams did we expect Tom to make the list. Unfortunately, less than a week after coming out of the woods and joining Instagram, his account was promptly hacked. Hopefully, he can shake off his password mistake and come back in cybersecurity style. No bad blood Tom.

99 Problems… Bad Passwords Don’t Have To Be One

Although we’ve had fun at the expense of the celebrities, it’s not completely their fault. Celebrities, like the rest of us, must deal with a broken system that demands human beings memorize passwords for all of the accounts we have. To be completely secure, you need a strong, unique password for each online account. With the average user having over 100 accounts requiring passwords, it’s just impossible to ask people to memorize strong passwords for each account.

The list is random and not in order of rank. The public, however, can visit @Dashlane on Twitter use the hashtag #dashlanepassholes to vote for the nominee they believe should be the P@sshole of the Year.


Below are four actions everyone can take to ensure they good the best password hygiene.

  1. Strong Passwords – Your passwords should be like Kanye West album titles… completely random and impossible to guess. Never use passwords that are easy to guess, such as ones with common names or things people know about you. Your passwords should be at least 8 characters long and include a mix of random letters, numbers, and symbols.
  2. Different Password for Every Account – Treat your passwords like a celebrity treats an outfit; never use it twice. If a hacker gets access to a password that you’re reusing then they have access to all of your accounts. Having a unique password for every account ensures that even if one is breached, others will be secure.
  3. Two-Factor Authentication – This is like hiring another bodyguard, and ensures that even if someone does get your password, they can’t access your account without a second form of authentication, such as a text message code or email link.
  4. Get a Password Manager! – Password managers like Dashlane simplify all of the items above by creating and storing strong passwords for all of your accounts. To help keep you safe and off of the P@sshole list, we’re offering an exclusive $20 discount on our Premium service. Don’t be a P@sshole… click HERE to get your limited time discount!

About Dashlane

Dashlane makes identity and checkouts simple with its password manager and secure digital wallet app. Dashlane allows its users to securely manage passwords, credit cards, IDs, and other important information via advanced encryption and local storage. Dashlane has helped over 6 million users in 150 countries manage and secure their digital identity. The app is available on PC, Mac, Android, and iOS, and has won critical acclaim from top publications, including: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.

Dashlane is free to use on one device, and Dashlane Premium costs $39.99/year to sync between an unlimited number of devices. Dashlane was founded by Bernard Liautaud and co-founders Alexis Fogel, Guillaume Maron, and Jean Guillou. The company has offices in New York City and Paris and has received $52.5 million in funding from Rho Ventures, FirstMark Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners. Learn more at Dashlane.com.

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