If you’re guilty of using an easy-to -emember password for your online accounts, it’s probably time to up your personal security game.
And according to new data from password manager NordPass, despite growing cybersecurity awareness, old habits die hard.
Their latest research shows that people still use weak passwords to protect their accounts – and if you have any of these 20 passwords, it’s time to change things up ASAP.
In 2022, “password” overtook “123456” as the most used password in the United Kingdom (UK), according to NordPass.
Last year’s winner, “123456,” also seems to be retaining favour — having fallen only to second place. Think those are uninventive? Here’s the full list here.
UK’s 20 most common passwords
1. password
2. 123456
3. guest
4. liverpool
5. qwerty
6. arsenal
7. 123456789
8. password1
9. 12345
10. 12345678
11. chelsea
12. charlie
13. abc123
14. liverpool1
15. Parola12
16. football
17. monkey
18. chocolate
19. yuantuo2012
20. letmein
Data also found that using your name to secure your accounts remains a common practice of internet users. In the UK, Charlie, Thomas, Jasper, George, and Jessica were top names used as passwords in 2022.
And it’s not just the names of people proving popular – sports-related passwords are super common.
For instance, football team names or variations of them make extremely popular passwords in the UK — “liverpool” is the fourth most common password in the country, “arsenal” ranks sixth, and “chelsea” is 11th.
Tips to secure your passwords
Even though companies implement security measures to protect our accounts, every user still needs to be careful with their passwords.
1. Be aware of all accounts that are in your possession. Experts recommend deleting unused accounts and knowing the exact number of those that are active. This way, you can prevent gaps in your password management.
2. Make long, unique passwords, and never reuse them. Complicated combinations of numbers, uppercase, lowercase letters, and symbols make the most robust passwords. Reusing them is never an option — if one account gets hacked, other accounts are at risk.
3. Use a password manager. This technological solution fully encrypts the passwords stored in the vault and allows secure sharing. Many cybersecurity incidents happen because of simple human mistakes — people leave their passwords openly accessible for others and store them in Excel or other unencrypted applications.