If you use one of the most common passwords, you’re an easy target for hackers. Here’s how to stay safe.
Everyone has this issue; if you sign up for a new account online, you must create a username and password. This one needs one capital, one lowercase, and one symbol, but not !, your firstborn, pat your head and spin in a circle while typing. So, you create a password that you will ultimately forget, but your browser will save it, so you are good until you want to log in to another computer. So, you create the most accessible password the system will allow you to use.
Not so fast! Suppose a password is frequently reused or easy to guess. In that case, bad actors can more easily access email, banking, and social media accounts, resulting in identity theft and financial loss.
Easy-to-remember passwords are convenient, but their potential downsides can be devastating. A weak and predictable password is easy to crack. Hackers may use software that guesses the most common passwords, and other freely available tools on the dark web (a hidden part of the internet notorious for criminal activity) may comb through your social media profiles to look for important names and dates that are likely to appear in your password.
The importance of selecting solid passwords is evident, right? It begs the question: What is the most common password in the world? After all, if you know hackers’ first guess, you can avoid it at all costs.
The most recent list of passwords from NordPass ranks these as the most common in the world:
- 123456
- admin
- 12345678
- 123456789
- 1234
- 12345
- password
- 123
- Aa123456
- 1234567890
- 1234567
- 123123
- 111111
- Password
- 12345678910
- 000000
- admin123
- 1111
- P@ssw0rd
- root
- 654321
- qwerty
- Pass@123
- 112233
- 102030
- ubnt
- abc123
- Aa@123456
- abcd1234
- 1q2w3e4r
- 123321
- qwertyuiop
- 87654321
- 987654321
- Eliska81
- 123123123
- 11223344
- 0987654321
- demo
- 12341234
- qwerty123
- Admin@123
- 1q2w3e4r5t
- 11111111
- pass
- Demo@123
- azerty
- admintelecom
- Admin
- 123meklozed
NordPass also looked at password use by location, determining that these are the most common passwords used in the United States:
- 123456
- password
- admin
- 1234
- UNKNOWN
- 12345678
- 123456789
- 12345
- abc123
- Password
- Password1
- password1
- 12345678910
- 1q2w3e4r
- 1234567
- shitbird
- 1234567890
- 123123
- reset
- qwerty
Are your passwords on these lists? It’s time to change them. Using one of the above is a massive password mistake, and hackers are waiting for you to make it.