Based on an analysis of 5 million passwords leaked on the Internet, it seems most people haven’t yet bought into the idea of making their passwords harder to break.
According to password management solution company SplashData, many of the same terrible passwords used in 2017 were still in use in 2018.
Each year, SplashData evaluates millions of leaked passwords to determine which passwords were most used by computer users during that year.
Even with the risks well known, many millions of people continue to use weak, easily-guessable passwords to protect their online information. For example, 2018 was the fifth consecutive year that “123456” and “password” retained their top two spots on the list.
Here’s the top 25, and whether they were new or unchanged from 2017:
1 123456 Unchanged
2 password Unchanged
3 123456789 Up 3
4 12345678 Down 1
5 12345 Unchanged
6 111111 New
7 1234567 Up 1
8 sunshine New
9 qwerty Down 5
10 iloveyou Unchanged
11 princess New
12 admin Down 1
13 welcome Down 1
14 666666 New
15 abc123 Unchanged
16 football Down 7
17 123123 Unchanged
18 monkey Down 5
19 654321 New
20 !@#$%^&* New
21 charlie New
22 aa123456 New
23 donald New
24 password1 New
25 qwerty123 New
SplashData estimates almost 10% of people have used at least one of the 25 worst passwords on this year’s list, and nearly 3% of people have used the worst password, 123456.
You can can read about the list and tips for better passwords here.
