Every year, data reveals that millions of people around the world make questionable choices when it comes to choosing passwords they use to protect their accounts. This year's statistics have confirmed that bad habits do die hard and many people continue to make themselves targets of account-takeover attacks and hackers.
After analysing more than 500 million passwords that were leaked online after various data breaches this year, password management app Nordpass has compiled a list of the worst passwords used by people in 2019. The list revealed that "12345," "123456" and "123456789" continued to claim the top three spots, used by a combined total of 6.3 million users to "secure" their accounts.
It only gets worse as you make your way further down the list, with words like "test1" and, the infamous, "password." The rest of the list is brimming with other usual suspects like "asdf," "abc123," "qwerty" and "iloveyou" and many others. Other extremely hackable passwords, including common names like "jessica" and "charlie" and numerical strings like "55555" and "111111" are also abundant.
While, Nordpass has listed out 200 such passwords that are at risk of being hacked, we've included the top 50 passwords on the chart:
- 12345
- 123456
- 123456789
- test1
- password
- 12345678
- zinch
- g_czechout
- asdf
- qwerty
- 1234567890
- 1234567
- Aa123456.
- iloveyou
- 1234
- abc123
- 111111
- 123123
- dubsmash
- test
- princess
- qwertyuiop
- sunshine
- BvtTest123
- 11111
- ashley
- 00000
- 000000
- password1
- monkey
- livetest
- 55555
- soccer
- charlie
- asdfghjkl
- 654321
- family
- michael
- 123321
- football
- baseball
- a1w2e3r4t5y6
- nicole
- jessica
- purple
- shadow
- hannah
- chocolate
- michelle
- daniel
Password Tips
If you're using any of the above-mentioned passwords, then it's time to fix it. Start with not using the same password as millions of other people while signing up for an account.
Using a passphrase is a good option and it's not only easier to remember but a tough nut to crack for hackers. This is extremely useful, particularly when you're not using a password management app or software, which is also helpful when it comes to setting up a strong and unique password.
Furthermore, make sure you use a unique password for each website or platform you sign up for, as hackers are extremely skilled at finding the chinks in your security armour, and they'll jump at the chance to take advantage of people who re-use passwords across multiple accounts using email and password combinations leaked online.
