A list compiled from hundreds of data breaches, sorted by the frequency of use. Why Wordlists Still Work

If you’ve ever dabbled in ethical hacking, you’ve likely encountered these "hall of fame" lists:

Knowing how these lists work is the first step in defending against them. Here is how you can protect your systems:

This reveals a paradox: in our attempt to make passwords "complex" by adding numbers and symbols, we have only created a stricter pattern. The wordlist does not need to guess a password; it only needs to guess the recipe the user followed to cook it.

Implement "rate limiting." If a system sees five failed login attempts in ten seconds, it should temporarily lock the account.