With the holiday season just around the corner, cybercriminals are ramping up their efforts to hack everything from bank accounts to social media profiles. One of the easiest ways they gain access to personal information is by exploiting weak passwords.
To help protect users, NordPass, a password manager that securely stores and organizes passwords and notes in an encrypted vault, has published a list of the 200 most common passwords to avoid. By using these passwords, you make it much easier for hackers to access your accounts.
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NordPass analyzed 2.5 terabytes of data from 44 countries, sourced from publicly available information and exposed through data leaks. In many cases, passwords were leaked along with email addresses, allowing the researchers to separate corporate from personal credentials based on domain names, the company noted.
The top 10 most common passwords that should be avoided at all costs include “123456,” which appears in 3,018,050 instances, followed by “123456789” with 1,625,135 occurrences. Other commonly used passwords include “12345678” (884,740 instances), “password” (692,151 instances), and “qwerty123” (642,638 instances).
Additionally, passwords like “qwerty1” (583,630 instances), “111111” (459,730 instances), “12345” (395,573 instances), “secret” (363,491 instances), and “123123” (351,576 instances) also rank among the most frequently used.
These passwords are easily guessable and should be avoided to protect your accounts from being compromised. The company found that when comparing the top 10 most common personal passwords to those used in corporate settings, they are nearly identical. This highlights a concerning trend: people often rely on the same weak passwords for both their personal and professional accounts, putting both their personal security and company data at risk.
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How do you create a strong password?
Using weak passwords like these makes it easier for hackers to gain unauthorized access to your accounts. So, how should you protect yourself? Now is the perfect time to review and strengthen your passwords to keep your information safe this holiday season and beyond.
To ensure your accounts remain safe, it’s crucial to use a strong and secure password. According to NordPass, your password should be at least 20 characters long and contain a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special symbols. Avoid easily guessable information like birthdays, names, or common words.
Additionally, consider investing in passkeys—digital credentials that allow users to log into websites and apps without the need for a traditional username or password, Google Identity highlights. Passkeys are designed to be more secure, faster, and easier to use than passwords, offering a modern solution to the password problem. NordPass is one of the early adopters of passkey technology, providing users with a secure, passwordless online experience that’s both seamless and more reliable.
Hackers won’t stand a chance!
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