Avoiding the password ‘password’ might seem obvious if you want to protect your accounts from being hacked.
But new research from NordPass suggests it’s the most used password in the UK this year, leaving people vulnerable to hackers.
The second most used password, meanwhile, was ‘qwerty123’ (qwerty is the first six letters on the top row of a keyboard for anyone puzzled), while the third was ‘qwerty1’.
Football teams feature heavily in the list, with ‘liverpool’ coming in at number four, ‘liverpool1’ at number 9, ‘arsenal’ at ten, ‘chelsea’ at 12 and ‘rangers’ at 18.
Fourth place goes to the number sequence ‘123456’, while sixth is 123456789 and seventh ‘password1’.
Further down the list, but still in the top 20 is the name charlie and charlie1.
The results are worrying, as most of these passwords can by cracked by cybercriminals in less than a second.
The researchers at NordPass, a password manager service, used a 2.5 terabyte database of leaked passwords from across the internet and dark web to compile a list of the 200 most common passwords used this year, with the top 20 in the UK shared below.
They found that 21,128 UK accounts use the word ‘password’ and 7,338 accounts use ‘password1’.
A total of 17, 415 accounts used the number sequence 123456.
Huge numbers of corporate accounts, according to NordPass’s research, also featured easily hackable passwords.
Worldwide, the top three most popular passwords for work accounts were ‘123456’, ‘123456789’, and ‘12345678’.
The password ‘123456’ was used for a whopping ‘1,233,477’ work accounts.
Many corporate accounts were also still using default passwords, NordPass’s research showed.
Another mistake many people continue to make is using the same password across accounts.
Karolis Arbačiauskas, head of business product at NordPass, said: ‘Password reuse is widespread, and the reason is simple — it’s just easier.
‘Nevertheless, cybersecurity hygiene requires using a different password for every account because the convenience of password reuse does not outweigh the risks it poses.
‘For example, if your credentials were breached or a hacker were to brute-force their way into one of your accounts by repeatedly trying different combinations until they gain access, they would most certainly try to use that password with the rest of your accounts.’
As well as using different passwords for each account, Mr Arbačiauskas recommends people use passwords that are at least 20 characters long.
This makes it much harder for criminals to break into your account, he said.
But please avoid 1234567891234556789123456789.
Earlier this year we took a look at the most commonly used pop culture passwords, including bands. The top spot for the latter might surprise you.
For those, the advice is the same – avoid, as they’re easy to hack.
This article was originally published on November 15, 2024.
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