Will we EVER learn? The most common passwords of the year are revealed – with ‘password’ and ‘123456’ topping the list yet again

• The company NordPass has released its annual Most Common Passwords report
• ‘123456’ and ‘password’ are still among the most popular passwords in the UK

When it comes to choosing a password, it appears many of us still don’t take security that seriously — especially if streaming films and TV shows. 

That’s because new research has revealed that ‘123456’, ‘admin’, ‘password’ and ‘user’ are again among the world’s most popular login phrases.

Not only that, but a third of the world’s most popular passwords consist of purely numerical sequences such as ‘123456789’, ‘12345’, and ‘000000’.

The analysis found that people use the weakest passwords for things like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video, while the strongest logins are reserved for financial accounts. 

‘Netflix’, ‘netflix123’, ‘disney123’ and ‘disney2020’ were all among the most commonly used passwords for streaming services, according to password management company NordPass.

Easy to crack: New research has revealed that ‘123456’, ‘admin’, ‘password’ and ‘user’ are again among the world’s most popular login phrases (stock image)

Britain’s favourite passwords: In the UK, both ‘password’ and ‘password1’ were again among the most commonly used this year, according to password management company NordPass

THE MOST COMMON PASSWORDS IN THE UK

‘Apple2020’ ‘Iphone1234’ and ‘Samsung1’ were popular with smartphone users, ‘minecraft’ for gamers and ‘amazon’ for e-commerce websites.

Although financial accounts proved to have the strongest passwords, it should be more than a little concerning that there are people who have chosen the phrases ‘visavisa1’ and ‘paypal123’ to secure them.

Football also remains a common inspiration for internet users’ passwords, according to NordPass. 

Its annual Most Common Passwords report revealed that many British people used player and team names for their logins, including ‘Liverpool’, ‘Arsenal’, ‘Chelsea’, ‘Rangers’, as well as simply ‘Football’.

That may not come as much as a surprise.

What is more interesting, however, is that those in the UK rather bizarrely also like to choose passwords relating to animals or mythical creatures, such as ‘monkey’ and ‘dragon’.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a common password list without the word ‘password’ on it.

In the UK, both ‘password’ and ‘password1’ were again among the most commonly used this year, according to NordPass.

‘Qwerty’ – the six characters in the top left of a computer keyboard – was also heavily featured, along with abc123.

Somewhat randomly, ‘cheese’ also appears among the top 20 most common passwords, while ‘letmein’ and ‘killer’ were popular, too.

Perhaps most concerningly, all of the logins featured on the UK list take less than a second to crack, prompting NordPass to warn about the need to better protect accounts from hackers.

It said that rather than internet users improving their password creation habits, this year had seen them go in the other direction by sticking to already pre-configured passwords.

For example, ‘admin’ wasn’t even on the global list in 2022 but has now shot up to the top of the charts in most of the countries surveyed, bar the UK.

Globally it sits at number 2 overall. 

Alarming: ‘Admin’ wasn’t even on the global list in 2022 but has now shot up to the top of the charts in most of the countries surveyed, bar the UK

Across the pond: In the US, ‘123456’ was also the most popular login, along with ‘password’

THE TOP 50 MOST COMMON PASSWORDS WORLDWIDE

Rank

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50 

Password

123456 

admin 

12345678 

123456789 

1234 

12345 

password 

123 

Aa123456 

1234567890 

UNKNOWN 

1234567 

123123 

111111 

Password 

12345678910 

000000 

admin123 

******** 

user 

1111 

P@ssw0rd 

root 

654321 

qwerty 

Pass@123 

****** 

112233 

102030 

ubnt 

abc123 

Aa@123456 

abcd1234 

1q2w3e4r 

123321

err 

qwertyuiop 

87654321 

987654321 

Eliska81 

123123123 

11223344 

987654321 

demo 

12341234 

qwerty123 

Admin@123 

1q2w3e4r5t 

11111111

pass

Time to crack it 

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

< 1 Second 

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

< 1 Second 

< 1 Second

17 Minutes 

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

11 Seconds 

< 1 Second

1 Second 

< 1 Second 

< 1 Second

1 Second 

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

5 Minutes 

< 1 Second 

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

1 Second 

< 1 Second

11 Seconds 

< 1 Second

< 1 Second 

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

3 Hours 

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

< 1 Second

< 1 Second 

1 Hour 

< 1 Second

< 1 Second 

< 1 Second

Number of users

4,524,867 

4,008,850 

1,371,152 

1,213,047 

969,811 

728,414 

710,321 

528,086 

319,725 

302,709 

240,377 

234,187 

224,261 

191,392 

177,725 

172,502 

168,653 

159,354 

152,497 

146,233 

144,262 

135,424 

122,834 

109,908 

109,836 

105,505 

102,054 

100,920 

99,612 

98,743 

94,698 

90,414 

86,921 

86,486 

83,206 

81,390 

79,434 

79,310 

78,452 

75,755 

73,033 

72,444 

69,006 

68,140 

67,957 

67,787 

65,258 

64,597 

63,545 

62,169 

NordPass said that as many as 70 per cent of the passwords in this year’s global list can be cracked in less than a second. 

The company’s independent researchers analysed the use of passwords in some 35 countries worldwide, while also studying how malware attacks can be a huge threat to people’s safety online. 

Once someone’s computer gets infected with malware, experts say a person risks losing a vast amount of personal information, including passwords and other credentials saved on the browser.

That is why people should choose stronger passwords that are harder to crack, or use new passkey technology, they added. 

Tomas Smalakys, the chief technology officer of NordPass, said: ‘With the terrifying risks password users encounter, alternative methods in online authentication are now essential.

Lax: The analysis found that people use the weakest passwords for things like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video, while the strongest logins are reserved for financial accounts

Hacking threat: The company’s independent researchers analysed the use of passwords in some 35 countries worldwide, while also studying how malware attacks can be a huge threat to people’s safety online (stock image)

‘Passkey technology, considered the most promising innovation to replace passwords, is successfully paving its way, gaining trust among individuals and progressive companies worldwide. 

‘Being among the first password managers to offer this technology, we see people are curious to test new things, as long as this helps eliminate the hassle of passwords.’

Cyber security expert Jake Moore said: ‘Poor passwords are often an easy way for hackers to get into accounts and there are tools cyber criminals use to help them gain access such as stuffing password fields with well-used passwords. 

‘People often put their passwords on their social media such as their pet names or favourite films, for example.’

He added: ‘The clever use of two factor authentication and robust encryption are a far stronger mix than using the same two or three passwords for all accounts.’ 

Tips to ensure your passwords are safe 

1. Deploy a password manager

Password managers allow you to store all the passwords in end-to-end encrypted digital storage locked with a single keyword for the most convenience. Most password managers have additional features to check passwords’ strength and automatically generate unique passwords. For organizations, they can come in handy when sharing passwords with employees or managing their access.

2. Introduce cybersecurity training

 Since simple human mistakes remain the leading cause of data breaches, it is worth investing in cybersecurity training sessions for employees. Starting from the basics might be a good idea given that people have different technology background levels.

3. Enable multi-factor authentication

Known as MFA, it serves as an extra layer of security. It is an authentication method that uses two or more mechanisms to validate the user’s identity – these can be separate apps, security keys, devices, or biometric data.

Source: NordPass

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