If You Still Use Any of These Online Passwords, Change It Right Now Before You Get Hacked

A password management company, NordPass, has published the 200 most common passwords of 2020. Many analysts said the list of 200 most common passwords used by people all over the world in this year indicates that people remain careless about the security of their online accounts – thus increasing their chances of being hacked. So if you still use any or more of the 200 passwords highlighted in the research, your online accounts may be compromised and your personal details stolen for fraudulent purposes.

To get this in proper perspective, here are the top 25 most common passwords that people use in 2020 and maybe have remained in use for almost a decade:

1. 123456
2. 123456789
3. picture1
4. password
5. 12345678
6. 111111
7. 123123
8. 12345
9. 1234567890
10. senha
11. 1234567
12. qwerty
13. abc123
14. Million2
15. 000000
16. 1234
17. iloveyou
18. aaron431
19. password1
20. qqww1122
21. 123
22. omgpop
23. 123321
24. 654321
25. Qwertyuiop

NordPass stated that professional hackers could hack these common passwords within minutes and steal identifiable information that may compromise the financial and family security of the user. And to underscore the depth of the research, the company did not only publish the 200 most common passwords of 2020, NordPass went further to reveal the number of people using each password, the estimated time it will take to crack it, the number of times hackers had cracked it, and other salient information that will reveal the apparent weakness of these identifiable passwords.

For example, the company found from its research that the password “123456” has 2,543,285 people using it from different parts of the world. The study also found that it takes less a second for a professional hacker with the right tools to crack. As part of the research, the password management company analyzed a database with 275,699,516 passwords.

In order to better secure your password and online accounts against hackers, NordPass advised that people should not use personal details such as their names, dates of birth, phone number, dictionary words, and family information for their passwords. They advised it is best to passwords that are at least 12 characters long, contain a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, and not use the same password across multiple online accounts. They advise it is also good to change or modify passwords two or three times a year.

Source: bgr.com