It’s something that we’re all regularly warned about, but it seems that many people are still using passwords that are very easy to guess.
Researchers from NordPass have revealed the UK’s most popular passwords of 2020 - and many are pretty obvious.
Chad Hammond, a security expert at NordPass, said: “Most of these passwords can be hacked in less than a second. Also, they have already been exposed in previous data breaches. For example, the most popular password ‘123456’ has been breached 23,597,311 times.”
NordPass evaluated a database that contained 275,699,516 passwords, and found that the most popular passwords were easy-to-guess number combinations, such as 123456 and 123456789.
Other common phrases included ‘qwerty’, ‘iloveyou’ and believe it or not, the word ‘password’ itself (scroll down for the list of the top 50 passwords).
Worryingly, just 44% of the passwords analysed were unique, suggesting many Brits could be leaving their accounts vulnerable to hackers.
Mr Hammond said: “Your weak password can be used for credential stuffing attacks, where the breached logins are used to gain unauthorized access to user accounts.
“If you fall victim to a credential stuffing attack, you might lose your Facebook or another important account with all its content.
“Also, your email address could be used for phishing attacks or for scamming your family and friends, who may very well fall for it, as the email will supposedly be coming from you.”
Based on the findings, the experts advise that you use complex, lengthy and unique passwords, and store them in a password manager.
Top 50 most popular passwords of 2020
1. 123456
2. 123456789
3.picture1
4. password
5. 12345678
6. 111111
7. 123123
8. 12345
9. 1234567890
10. senha
11. 1234567
12. qwerty
13. abc123
14. Million2
15. 000000
16. 1234
17. iloveyou
18. aaron431
19. password1
20. qqww1122
21. 123
22. omgpop
23. 123321
24. 654321
25. qwertyuiop
26. qwer123456
27. 123456a
28. a123456
29. 666666
30. asdfghjkl
31. ashley
32. 987654321
33. unknown
34. zxcvbnm
35. 112233
36. chatbooks
37. 20100728
38. 123123123
39. princess
40. jacket025
41. evite
42. 123abc
43. 123qwe
44. sunshine
45. 121212
46. dragon
47. 1q2w3e4r
48. 5201314
49. 159753
50. 123456789
