In the world of e-technology, it is not unusual for every social media site, online subscription, and even bank and insurance accounts to ask for security with the help of a password.

While most of these sites ask for different combinations -- use of capital letters, symbols, numbers, etc., most people don't care to think twice about using a simple word or a number set so that they can easily remember.

It's 2016, and with the past major hacks that have come our way -- celebrity phone hacks and Sony emails ring a bell? -- you'd think that people would be smarter about their password use, but it seems that we're still none the wiser.

Gizmodo reported that Splash Data released a list of the most popular passwords used in the last year. Here is the list of popular passwords from 2015 -- do you use any of them?

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

SplashData CEO Morgan Slain said in a blog post that "Passwords based on simple patterns on your keyboard remain popular despite how weak they are. Any password using numbers alone should be avoided, especially sequences."

He added, "As more websites require stronger passwords or combinations of letters and numbers, longer keyboard patterns are becoming common passwords, and they are still not secure."

Nowadays, many sites --- especially banking sites, require a certain combination of letters, numbers, and special characters to create unique passwords, but it seems that there are still many who think that it's okay not to amp up their security.

As The Associated Press noted, there are several ways to make a password stronger. Here are some of the most common tips:

1. Make your password long. While it is recommended that you use a minimum of eight characters, longer is better, although take note that there are some sites that put a limit to passwords.
2. Substitute characters. Although leet speak is not ideal in more formal settings, using substitute characters, for instance the number zero instead of the letter O, makes it less likely for someone to hack into your account.
3. Avoid easy to remember combinations, even those that aren't found in the dictionary. Using your name, birthday, address, the name of your loved ones or pets are all dangerous territory as far as security is concerned.

Of course, there are also other services that now offer two levels or more of security, which should be taken advantage of. How do you ensure nobody can hack into your account?