An analysis of the most common passwords used worldwide has revealed that we are still using weak passwords.
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While the idea of using passwords like QWERTY, 123456, and PASSWORD may sound like a joke to you, they are still found in data dumps of stolen credentials published online.
Major internet service providers often require the use of strong passwords with lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and special characters. They also enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA).
However, businesses may not enforce the same standards. Additionally, forgotten and ghost accounts, hardcoded credentials, and the reuse of username and password combinations are still common problems today.
See also: Microsoft: Delete passwords in Windows 10 immediately
On Wednesday, Nordpass published its annual study of password usage in 50 countries, the “Most Common Passwords” report, an assessment of a database containing 4TB of leaked passwords, many of which come from the US, Canada, Russia, Australia and Europe.
According to researchers, the most common passwords for 2021, globally, were:
- 123456
- 123456789
- 12345
- qwerty
- password
- 12345678
- 111111
- 123123
- 1234567890
- 1234567
Among the findings, the researchers found that a “surprising” number of people like to use their name as a password (‘charlie’ emerged as the 9th most popular password in the UK in 2021).
“Onedirection” was a popular music-related password choice, and the number of times “Liverpool” appears could indicate how popular the football team is – although, in Canada, “hockey” was the top sports-related choice in active use.
Swear words are also used a lot. When it comes to animals, “dolphin” was the most popular choice internationally.
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In addition to variations of numbers and PC keyboards, on some lists, other local password options made it into the top 10, including the surname “Chregan” in South Africa, the city “Barcelona” in Spain, and the name “Tiffany” in France.
Here you can find the full NordPass report.
Information source: zdnet.com
