Despite the constant warnings of using a password manager or even a password generator to create strong and unique passwords for all of their online accounts, many users still use weak passwords and use them across multiple sites, putting their data and data at risk. identity.
NordPass released a new report detailing the 200 most common passwords of 2021, and for the second year in a row, "123456" remains the most popular password, even though it would only take a hacker less than a second to crack it. In fact, it was the most popular password in 43 of the 50 countries analyzed, followed by "123456", "123456789", "12345" (the most popular password in 2019), "qwerty" and all. Just "password".
To compile its latest list of the most common passwords, the corporate password management company worked with independent cybersecurity incident investigators to evaluate a database of 4 credentials.
NordPass CEO Jonas Karklys provided more information on the findings of this year's report in a statement, saying:
“Unfortunately, passwords are getting weaker and weaker and people are still not maintaining good password hygiene. It is important to understand that passwords are the gateway to our digital life and as we spend more and more time online, it becomes extremely important to take better care of our cybersecurity.
Most common passwords in 2021
NordPass also took a closer look at how location and gender affected this year's most popular passwords as part of its new report.
According to the company, cultural references can be found in every country, from local football team names like "Steelers" in the US or "Liverpool" in the UK to famous local drink names like "Guinness" in Ireland and religious passwords like "christ" in Nigeria and "bismillah" in Saudi Arabia.
When it comes to gender differences when creating weak passwords, NordPass found that women tend to use music-related passwords like "one-way" or "justinbieber" while men prefer group names like "metallica" and "slipknot." ". Another key difference between the sexes is that, in general, women use more positive and loving words, while men are more likely to use profanity when creating passwords.
In addition to using a password manager or password generator, online security conscious users should enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for their online accounts, monitor them for any activity, suspect, and use a violation checker. data to see if any of your passwords have been exposed as a result of a cyberattack.
Also check out our roundup of the best identity theft protection and our list of the best malware removal software.