Any idea what the most commonly used passwords of the year are?
Ah passwords, a constant source of headaches for so many people. We’re all guilty of reusing the same passwords for multiple logins, or changing a word slightly. They can be tricky, and the concern is that they can also be terribly predictable.
Unique passwords are really important for so many reasons, but mainly, if you go for something strong and unique, your accounts won’t be compromised. Think about it, if you sign up to a new service, and your username and password is known to “bad people” online, and they assume that most people re-use their password across multiple services, what do you reckon will be the outcome?
Yep – they use that combination to try and log into every system imaginable. Not ideal, is it?
When you are coming up with a password, there are certain ones you should just flat out avoid, as they’re the most popular, making them predictable.
Here are the five most commonly used passwords of 2020 (so far anyway), according to SplashData’s top 25 most common passwords. SplashData’s list is based on the company’s analysis of millions of passwords leaked on the internet.
- 123456
- 123456789
- qwerty
- password
- 1234567
- 12345678
- 12345
- iloveyou
- 111111
- 123123
So how can you best protect yourself, and your own cyber security?
Password management applications really are the best method to reduce the risks that passwords pose to an individual and organisation. Password Managers are low-cost and easy to roll out, and give users the ability generate and store lengthy random passwords.
