New research has highlighted the top most hackable passwords, allowing cybercriminals quick and easy access to the personal, private or even financial information you have behind it. Urging people with any passwords on this list to change them, experts at KnownHost warned: “Poor password security can provide easy access to vulnerable data in a matter of seconds.
The experts gathered the 200 most common passwords in the globe and found the top 10 used in data breaches between 2007 and 2024. Each of these passwords have been involved in over four million data breaches.
All of these passwords could be cracked by cybercriminals in less than a second, according to the research:
- 123456
- 123456789
- 1234
- 12345678
- 12345
- password
- 111111
- admin
- 123123
- abc123
Noting some trends, the experts pointed out the fact that most of the top 10 only used less than 10 characters and solely numbers or solely letters showed “many people still do not take password security seriously”. To combat this, the experts encouraged people to follow some best practice tips when making their next password.
This includes using a mixture of numbers, letters and special characters, as well as avoiding putting them in order such as the abc123 password on the list. Longer passwords are also harder for cybercriminals to crack but this doesn’t automatically make them fool-proof.
Instead of incorporating personal details like names or special dates, the experts recommended using random words, phrases and number combinations. You can make your password even more secure by adding random letters or characters throughout.
If you have a password protecting sensitive information like banking or medical details, it’s best to not use that same password anywhere else. Generally it’s best practice to avoid using the same password in multiple places to begin with.
Changing your password often, using multi-factor authentication and leveraging password managers was also among the top tips from KnownHost CEO, Daniel Pearson, who commented: “Cybercriminals are constantly evolving their tactics, but simple password hygiene can be the difference between staying protected and having your details included in a data breach.”