Having an easy-to-guess password is one of the most simple ways to leave your smartphone and PC vulnerable to being attacked by cybercriminals. Despite endless warnings, it appears that the phrase ‘Password’ and the numbers 1234 remain the most common passwords used by people today. While you may think that you have outsmarted the nefarious hackers by changing your password to something else, there are still dozens of other easy-to-guess combinations that will leave your personal information at risk.
This is why Cyber News studied data from publicly leaked data breaches looking at about 15,212,645,925 passwords that people used.
Of this massive data set, only 2,217,015,490 were unique, showing that millions of people around the world use similar passwords, like their favourite sports teams, cities, food, and even the year in which they were likely born.
Here are the top 10 most common passwords list in 2023:
123456
123456789
qwerty
password
12345
qwerty123
1q2w3e
12345678
111111
1234567890
So what should you do if you see your password on this list and you are concerned that your accounts could be at risk? The advice remains clear with most experts advising users to make sure they regularly change their passwords and use a combination that’s difficult to guess.
A complex password is one that often contains at least 12 characters and a varied combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
If that sounds too complicated most tech firms such as Apple and Google will generate codes for you which will be securely saved. Using this kind of password generator is the easiest and quickest way to create complex passwords.
Speaking to Express.co.uk, Naveed Islam, Chief Information Security Officer, at Dojo said: “You should stay away from using any type of personal information in your passwords, such as a name, date of birth, or your pet’s name, as this information can be easily discovered by hackers from social media profiles or even conversations!”
Another top tip is to make sure you have different codes for accounts. A single password for multiple accounts is a hacker’s delight. If only one of the accounts is compromised, consider all your other accounts jeopardised.
Security experts recommend changing passwords every 90 days to keep your accounts secure and bad actors at bay.
Along with those simple passwords, many of us also secure our phones using simple four-digit or six-digit pins that are also simple to decode.
Paul Holland, cyber security expert and CEO at Beyond Encryption told Express.co.uk: “The most vital time to change a password is when you suspect that your account has been compromised.
“It’s important to note that passwords alone are not enough to fully secure any account containing sensitive data. Utilising system options for multi-factor authentication provides an additional barrier against attackers, even in the event that a password is compromised, and significantly reduces the risk of an account being accessed maliciously.
“This is especially relevant for email, where data protection not only applies to initial account access, but to individual messages sent and received.
“Even if you already have a strong password strategy, ensuring information is kept safe during transit, whether by email or another digital channel, is crucial to ensuring only the intended parties have access.”
In a recent study, researchers from the Horst Gortz Institute for IT Security at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy in Bochum and George Washington University also found the 10 most popular four-digit pins and six-digit pins.
Common four-digit PINs
1234
0000
2580
1111
5555
5683
0852
2222
1212
1998
Meanwhile, here are the Common six-digit PINs
123456
654321
111111
000000
123123
666666
121212
112233
789456
159753
If someone gets hold of your phone and works out the pin number they will get instant access to contacts, emails and even personal pictures. That’s why its vital to choose something harder to guess.
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