Science & Tech

2021’s most common passwords are remarkably easy to guess

2021’s most common passwords are remarkably easy to guess

The most common passwords for 2021 have been revealed and they’re depressingly easy to guess.

Password manager NordPass shared a list of the 200 most common passwords in 2021 and most of them take less than a second to crack.

Over 130,000,000 people used the password “123456”, with over 46,000,000 going for “123456789”, presumably to satisfy character limits.

Old favourites such as “qwerty” and “qwertyuiop” also appeared and shockingly, almost 21,000,000 still use the word “password”.

It seems some have managed to channel the full spectrum of human emotion into insecure passwords, with “iloveyou” and “f***you” also featuring in the top 200.

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Sporting teams also featured. In the UK, “liverpool” and “arsenal” appear in the top 10 most popular passwords. In fact, NordPass says that Liverpool “might be the most popular team in the world” judging by how many times it was used as a password.

Instead of using such easy passwords, NordPass advises people to use unique, complex passwords that are at least 12 characters long. Passwords should be updated regularly and they should never be reused.

Top 10 most common passwords:

  1. 123456
  2. 123456789
  3. 12345
  4. qwerty
  5. password
  6. 12345678
  7. 111111
  8. 123123
  9. 1234567890
  10. 1234567

If you see your password on the list, it’s probably time to start taking NordPass’s advice and change up your passwords.

To see the full list, visit NordPass.

To give you or a loved one a quick online safety health check, ensure you can tick these seven boxes for staying safe online.

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