Password specialist NordPass has revealed the 200 strings of numbers and letters most often used and concluded that, despite growing cybersecurity awareness, old habits die hard and that many people still use fairly simple and weak combinations to protect their accounts.
The firm compiled and published a list of passwords in partnership with an independent researcher. It covered 30 countries and showed that simple combinations of numbers and memorable words are most often used for passwords. The UK top ten was:
- password
- 123456
- guest
- liverpool
- qwerty
- arsenal
- 123456789
- password1
- 12345
- 12345678
The report also highlighted how people approach password setting. It noted that every year, sports teams, movie characters, and food items dominate. The password ‘u2’ was used more than 33 million times in 2022. In contrast to this simplistic approach, it says that long and complex passwords are most effective. They should contain at least 12 characters and use a variety of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. You can see the details here.
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