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Research finds mostly commonly used password that can be hacked in a second

Home> Technology

Published 19:41 30 Sep 2022 GMT+1

Research finds mostly commonly used password that can be hacked in a second

If this is your password of choice, you might want to consider changing it as soon as you finish reading

Shola Lee

Shola Lee

If this is your password, change it immediately because it can be guessed in a second — we're being serious.

Look, not all of us are tech-savvy and that's okay, but when we live most of our lives online, you need to have a decent password to protect your data at the very least.

Still, not even mass tech hacks were enough to make people rethink their easy password choices, as researchers recently found.

The research was conducted by NordPass, a password manager that creates safe codes for the technologically challenged and remembers them so you don't have to. Think of it like the 'Keychain' feature that Apple offers, except you pay for this one.

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Can you guess what the most used password is?
SFL Travel / Alamy Stock Photo

Revealing their findings for data compiled last year, the researchers teased: "It’s that time of the year again when we get to see whether people are using the same weak passwords. Here are the top 200 most common passwords according to the 2021 research."

And, to be honest, we reckon you'd easily be able to guess the top 10 on that list because they are overwhelmingly simplistic.

So, without further adieu, here's the list of most common passwords:

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The company conducted the password research.
Nord Pass

As you can see from the table, the most common password is '123456', which takes one second to crack.

If that wasn't bad enough, the researchers also put into context how likely you were to suffer a data hack based on the country you were in, with Russia experiencing the most hacks per capita with a total of 2,867,917,611 across the country.

The top 10 list of passwords also varies slightly depending on the region.

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For most countries '123456' holds the top spot, but hilariously in the UK the third most used password is 'liverpool' and in the eighth spot it was 'liverpool1'. This should act as a warning sign for football fans everywhere, as using your favourite team as your password can seemingly have dire consequences.

If this is your password, please change it — immediately.
Edgars Sermulis / Alamy Stock Photo

Rather predictably, 'arsenal' was still behind Liverpool, taking the 10th spot on the UK's password list.

If at this point you're wondering how exactly the researchers compiled their data, they partnered with independent specialists from the cybersecurity sector to evaluate the 4TB database, which is a record of passwords that collects data from 50 different countries.

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So, we're hoping if you have any of the passwords mentioned you change them immediately.

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected] 

Featured Image Credit: calado / Sergiy Tryapitsyn / Alamy Stock Photo

Topics: News, Technology

Shola Lee
Shola Lee

Shola Lee began her journalism career while studying for her undergraduate degree at Queen Mary, University of London and Columbia University in New York. She has written for the Columbia Spectator, QM Global Bloggers, CUB Magazine, UniDays, and Warner Brothers' Wizarding World Digital. Recently, Shola took part in the 2021 BAFTA Crew and BBC New Creatives programme before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news, trending stories, and features.

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