Guys, it’s 2023 – why are so many of us still using ’123456′ as our password?
Don’t believe us? Well, NordPass, the password management tool from the team behind NordVPN, partnered with independent researchers to release its study of the 200 most common passwords used in 2023 – and 123456 is the world’s most common password.
The uncreative combo was counted more than 4.5 million times with the word ‘admin’ coming in second place.
What does this mean for your cyber security? According to NordPass, it takes hackers less than a second to crack ’123456′ and ‘admin’, so if you’re still using either, it’s seriously time to change!
A third of the world’s most popular passwords consist of purely numerical sequences such as ’123456789′, ‘12345’, and ‘000000’.
Unsurprisingly, ‘password’ also was in the top 10 most common passwords list.
The analysis also found that people use the weakest (and easiest to remember) passwords for their streaming accounts (Netflix), while the strongest letter and number combos are reserved for financial accounts.
Password combinations that people used for their streaming accounts included (brace yourself): ‘Netflix’, ‘netflix123’, ‘disney123’ and ‘disney2020’.
And although banking accounts had stronger passwords, ‘visavisa1’ and ‘paypal123’ were still found to be used to protect them.
NordPass warns that as many as 70% of the passwords in this year’s report can be cracked in less than a second.
Tomas Smalakys, the chief technology officer of NordPass, said: “With the terrifying risks password users encounter, alternative methods in online authentication are now essential.
“Passkey technology, considered the most promising innovation to replace passwords, is successfully paving its way, gaining trust among individuals and progressive companies worldwide.
“Being among the first password managers to offer this technology, we see people are curious to test new things, as long as this helps eliminate the hassle of passwords.”