Passwords are a hotly debated topic. The National Security Centre in the UK has released a list of the 100,000 most common passwords.
With this move, experts are trying to convince users to use the strongest passwords possible. Passwords that cannot be easily predicted by hackers or even found from stolen databases.
The number of common passwords is huge. This means that a large portion of people don't realize how important it is to have a strong password. Many people continue to use their names, the football team they support, the name of a band, and other simple passwords.
The passwords that were checked and assessed as common are passwords that were found to be public, having been leaked by hackers or sold on the dark web.
The results of the audit showed that the most common password is “123456”. The number of users using it reaches 23.2 million. About 7.7 million users chose “123456789”.
The next three most common passwords are "qwerty", "password" and "111111", which are used by 3.8 million, 3.6 million and 3.1 million users respectively.
The 50 most used passwords are used by approximately 500,000 users and consist of sequences of numbers or the repetition of a number 6-7 times.
The top 20 also includes the words: “iloveyou,” “monkey,” and “dragon.” “myspace1” ranks 26thand is used by approximately 735,980 users.
Names are also a common choice. For example, the names “ashley” and “michael” are used by more than 400,000 users each. This is followed by “daniel,” “jessica,” and “charlie,” which are used by 300,000 users.
If these names are the names of the users themselves, then they are even easier to predict, since they are probably also present in the email.
Band names are another common password. Around 285,706 users chose blink182 as their password, making it the most common password in this category. This was followed by “50cent,” “enimem,” “metallica,” and “slipknot,” which appeared over 140,000 times.
The next most common code is sports teams. The code “liverpool” is at the top, with 280,723 users using it. The sports teams “chelsea”, “arsenal”, “manutd” and “everton” complete the top five.
Football teams are a code that can be easily predicted. The reason is that fans usually post things about their teams on social media, so it can be easily found.
The problem is that many people use the same password for all their accounts. The result is that if a hacker breaks these easy passwords, they will gain access to all the services the user uses.
“Reusing the same password is a significant risk that can be avoided. You should not protect sensitive data with something that can be easily predicted, such as your name, local football team or favorite band,” said Dr. Ian Levy, Technical Director of the NCSC.
Strong passwords that cannot be easily guessed should be used. A good suggestion is a combination of three random words that you can remember, of course.
Choosing a good password is the first and most important step to protecting your accounts.
The NCSC hopes that, after publishing this information, users will pay more attention to this important issue. In fact, it provides advice on how users can protect their accounts on the official NCSC website.
