Experts discovered the top 10 overused passwords in the US that could put you at risk of being easily hacked.
NordPass and NordSteller recently released its sixth annual analysis of personal password habits.
Based on NordPass and NordStellar’s data they crunched, ‘secret’ was the most common password in the US.
The management platforms found that the password was used 328,831 times, and it would take less than one second for someone to crack it.
‘Secret’ is also ranked in the top 10 most common passwords in the world.
Andrew Shikiar, executive director of Fido Alliance, mentioned hackers could guess the password if it’s even spelled using numbers or with other substitutions while speaking with CNBC.
‘For example, they might believe that “secret” is a weak password but “s3cr3t” will be hard to guess,’ Shikiar said in 2019.
‘However, hackers are wise to this type of substitution and will have no trouble guessing such a password.’
The second most common password in the US, ‘123456,’ is also ranked the number one common password in the world.
NordPass and NordStellar found that 3,018,050 used the password worldwide, and 260,428 used it in the US.
The easy-to-guess passwords that ranked the third, fourth, and fifth most common in America are ‘password,’ ‘qwerty123,’ and ‘qwerty1.’
‘Frequently used passwords such as “password” or “qwerty” are among the first choices attempted by cybercriminals,’ according to TeamPassword.
‘By opting for popular passwords, you inadvertently make it easier for malicious actors to breach your accounts.’
Sixth, seventh and eight on the list are ‘123456789,’ ‘password1’ and ‘12345678.’
And finally, the ninth and tenth most common passwords among Americans are ‘12345’ and ‘abc123’, although both were found to have been used less than 50,000 times.
When it came to corporate passwords in the US, ‘password’ was ranked the most common used by American workers.
The password ‘123456’ topped the list as the most common corporate password in the world, which NordPass said was at the top ‘five out of six times.’
Social media users were shocked at some of the common passwords that people dependably use both privately and at work.
‘Don’t use “123456” as a password! Strong passwords use letters, numbers, and symbols,’ an X user wrote.
‘It may be hard to remember, but a secure password can stop hackers in their tracks. Protect your online life by getting creative with your passcodes!’
Another X user joked: ‘People love “123456” more than their security, it seems.’
One person advised users not to use weak or guessable passwords, reused passwords, dictionary words and simple passwords, including ‘qwerty.’
That X user also suggested everyone create ‘unique, complex passwords‘ that are more than 12 characters and utilize password managers, regularly change their passwords and enable a two-factor authentication.
To yield their results, NordPass and NordStellar analyzed a 2.5 terabyte (TB) database extracted from public sources, including the dark web.
The technology experts organized the statistical information into categories to help analyze it by country of origin, with 44 nations included.
NordPass and NordStellar were also able to distinguish between corporate and personal credentials by domain names and email addresses.
During the analysis, the management platforms did not acquire or purchase anyone’s personal information, which was omitted when organizing the data into different categories.
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