Changing your online passwords regularly can be a pain, but it is absolutely essential for keeping your personal and financial information safe from hackers and cybercriminals - especially at this time of year.
Millions of people will be scouring the internet looking for bargains in the Black Friday and Cyber Monday online sales bonanza this week with many using saved passwords for favourite retailer or website accounts.
However, hackers use sophisticated technology to unlock these passwords and because many people use the same one for multiple accounts, you could be leaving your debit or credit card account open to attack.
NordPass has published its annual list of the 200 most common passwords being used in 50 countries across the world.
Their data revealed that ‘123456’ is the most popular password in 43 of those countries and is being used by 103,170,552 people.
If your password features on the list of most commonly used this year, stop what you’re doing and change it immediately - and make it something complex using a mix of numbers, letters and characters.
Top 50 most commonly used passwords of 2021
To read the full list of 200 most common passwords for this year, visit the Nordpass website here.
- 123456
- 123456789
- 12345
- qwerty
- password
- 12345678
- 111111
- 123123
- 1234567890
- 1234567
- qwerty123
- 000000
- 1q2w3e
- aa12345678
- abc123
- password1
- 1234
- qwertyuiop
- 123321
- password123
- 1q2w3e4r5t
- iloveyou
- 654321
- 666666
- 987654321
- 123
- 123456a
- qwe123
- 1q2w3e4r
- 7777777
- 1qaz2wsx
- 123qwe
- zxcvbnm
- 121212
- asdasd
- a123456
- 555555
- dragon
- 112233
- 123123123
- monkey
- 11111111
- qazwsx
- 159753
- asdfghjkl
- 222222
- 1234qwer
- qwerty1
- 123654
- 123abc
Commenting on the findings, NordPass CEO Jonas Karklys, said: “Unfortunately, passwords keep getting weaker, and people still don’t maintain proper password hygiene.
“It’s important to understand that passwords are the gateway to our digital lives, and with us spending more and more time online, it’s becoming enormously important to take better care of our cybersecurity.”
Top password tips from cybersecurity experts
Follow these top tips from the experts at Nordpass to keep your personal and financial information safe and secure online:
- Use strong and unique passwords for every account - if your password appears on the list, change it immediately
- Use MFA (multi-factor authentication) wherever possible, whether that’s a phone message or a fingerprint
- Monitor your accounts for suspicious activity so you can spot a data breach early on
NordPass is a password management system that first launched in 2019, designed to help users organise their passwords and secure notes, keeping them in an encrypted password vault.
By keeping everything in a vault secured by a single password, users can create a unique, super-strong alphanumeric password for every online account.
NordPass is free to use, although a paid subscription version is available too.
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