NordPass Report Reveals Worst Passwords of 2020; ‘123456’, ‘password’, ‘iloveyou’ Are the Usual Suspects

‘123456’ has been breached more than 23 million times and takes a second to crack, as per the report by NordPass.

By Tanishka Sodhi | Updated: 19 November 2020 17:39 IST

NordPass Report Reveals Worst Passwords of 2020; ‘123456’, ‘password’, ‘iloveyou’ Are the Usual Suspects

Less than half the passwords were new to this year's list, as per the NordPass report

Highlights

'123456’ was the most commonly used password this year, report shows
NordPass says the password has been breached more than 23 million times
‘picture1’ was a new entrant in the NordPass list this year

‘123456' was the most commonly used password in 2020 and has been breached more than 23 million times, an annual report by password manager NordPass has revealed. The password has reportedly been used by millions of people and takes less than a second to crack. The list reveals the 200 worst passwords of the year, details how many times they have been exposed, used, and the time it would take to crack them. ‘123456789' comes in second, while ‘picture1' takes third place.

In 2015, a report by a software firm had revealed that ‘123456' topped the list of worst passwords that year, followed by ‘password.' Five years later, not much has changed; ‘123456' remains the most commonly used password, the report by NordPass revealed, and ‘password' comes in fourth place.

Research by NordPass confirms what we know: people use simple, easy-to-remember passwords because it's convenient. The most memorable passwords are also the ones highly vulnerable to cracking, the research shows.

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The top twenty most commonly used passwords of 2020, in ascending ranks, are: ‘123456', ‘123456789', ‘picture1', ‘password', ‘12345678', ‘111111', ‘123123', ‘12345', ‘1234567890', ‘senha', ‘1234567', ‘qwerty', ‘abc123', ‘Million2', ‘000000', ‘1234', ‘iloveyou', ‘aaron431', ‘password1', and ‘qqww1122'. Most of these take less than a second to crack, as per the report.

Commonly used passwords, according to categories, were also revealed. ‘aaron431' was the most commonly used name in passwords this year, with over 90,000 users, while chocolate was the most commonly used food name with 21,409 users. More than 37,000 users had ‘pokemon' in their passwords, making it the most commonly used entertainment word. ‘iloveyou' ranked 17th on the list of commonly used passwords, and the first in the positive words category, with over a million users.

While ‘onedirection' came 184th on the list last year, NordPass said that it did not make it to the list of most commonly used passwords in 2020. Less than half the passwords – 78 of them – were new to the 2020's most popular list, as per the report.

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