A British cyber security agency has released a list of the 100,000 most commonly used passwords in the world. In other words, the passwords hackers are most likely to try first to turn you into a victim.
Britain's National Cyber Security Centre revealed the results in its first-ever UK Cyber Survey.
Click here to see the 100,000 most-used passwords. If yours is among them, the agency says you should change it (tips on creating more complex, but easy-to-remember passwords are below).
More than 23 million people worldwide who still used 123456 as their password were victims of cyber crime, according to the survey.
Here is a breakdown of the most common passwords that led to security breaches worldwide.
- 123456 (23.2 million victims)
- 123456789 (7.7 million)
- qwerty (3.8 million)
- password (3.6 million)
- 1111111 (3.1 million)
The most popular names for passwords were:
- ashley
- michael
- daniel
- jessica
- charlie
The most popular musician passwords were:
- blink182
- 50cent
- eminem
- metallica
- slipknot
The most popular fictional character passwords were:
- superman
- naruto
- tigger
- pokemon
- batman
Here are some common tips on how to keep your passwords safe.
- Don't use the same one for multiple accounts, especially for accounts that can give someone access to your personal information. If a hacker can figure it out for one, then they'll have access to several accounts.
- Make the password meaningful to you, such as obscure song lyric or movie quote. Replace letters with numbers or punctuation marks in places. For example, "AvengersEndgame" could be "@v3ng3r53ndg@m3"
- You can also make a password by using the first letter of each word in a sentence.
- You can use one of the several password generators that are available online and will even store them for you. If, however, you wish to write them all down, don't keep them next to your computer. Put them in a place a potential burglar or others won't think to look, such as your garage.
