123456 is no longer the most popular password after nine years, which one is?

Foto: Colourbox

For a long time, the famous ‘123456’ was the most popular password to use. Nine years in a row to be exact. Not convenient of course, but easy. But currently the most chosen password has actually been dethroned! Don’t fall off your chair when you know what the new most popular password is…

Creativity completely run wild… we as Metro would have liked to write. However, that is anything but the case. The most commonly used password by the Dutch and other people in the world is (drumroll) password. No, this is not a typo. ‘Password’ is really used by most people in our country as a password. Are you still looking for a good alternative: maybe Scheveningen is something for you (here you can read why).

Password 123456 remains popular

According to NordPass, a “password manager” for both personal and business markets, “password” is currently the most commonly used password in the world. However, ‘123456’ remains popular — it has only dropped to second place.

NordPass today released the results of its annual survey of the most commonly used passwords. The survey was conducted in thirty countries.

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Top 20 most used passwords

1. password 2. 123456 3. 123456789 4. guest 5. qwerty 6. 12345678 7. 111111 8. 12345 9. col123456 10. 123123 11. 1234567 12. 1234 13. 1234567890 14. 000000 15. 555555 16. 666666 17. 123321 18. 654321 19. 7777777 20. 123

Despite constant warnings from cybersecurity experts about the consequences of irresponsible password management, many Internet users are once again guilty of this. Compared to 2021 data, 73 percent of the 200 most used passwords remained the same last year.

Trends in creating a password

In addition to the research into the most commonly used passwords, five trends have also been listed this year.

1. While ‘password’ is the most popular password worldwide, variations such as ‘password1’, ‘Password’, ‘password123’, ‘Password1’ and ‘passw0rd’ are also high on the list. For example, ‘password99’ is popular in Italy and ‘fuckingpassword1234’ has been reported among Portuguese internet users.

2. The irritation about the obligation to create a password is also reflected in the choices made by internet users over the past year: ‘fuckyou’, ‘fuckoff’, ‘fuckyou1’ and similar passwords were particularly noticeable in Canada, Australia and the United States.

Swoon, swoon: password full of love…

3. Expressions of love are also popular: ‘iloveyou’ and its translations in other languages (‘teamo’ in Spain, ‘ichliebedich’ in Germany, etc.) are widely used, along with ‘sunshine’, ‘princess’ and ‘love’.

4. People usually choose convenience: simple keyboard combinations of numbers, letters and symbols are high on the list worldwide. ‘123456’ — which has a respectable second place this year — is still the most commonly used in many countries such as Brazil, Colombia, France and Japan. In Denmark, the password ‘123456789’ is at the top of the list. Passwords such as ‘abc123’, ‘qwerty’, ‘1q2w3e’, ‘a1b2c3’ and similar variations are also common in most countries.

5. Using your name to secure your accounts also remains popular among internet users. This year, the most commonly used names for creating passwords were Daniel, Thomas, Jordan, Michael, Marina, and Jessica. Names of animals (for example ‘monkey’) or mythical creatures (‘dragon’) were also frequently reported.

Tips to secure your passwords

Although companies take security measures to protect accounts, users should still be careful with their passwords. Below you can read three tips to improve your ‘password hygiene’:

1. Be aware of all the accounts you own. Experts recommend deleting unused accounts and say you need to know exactly how many are active. This way you can prevent holes in your password manager.

2. Create long, unique passwords and never reuse them. The strongest passwords consist of complex combinations of numbers, uppercase, lowercase and symbols. Reusing is always a bad idea. If one account is hacked, other accounts are at risk.

3. Use a password manager. This technological solution encrypts the stored passwords and enables secure sharing. Many cyber incidents happen due to simple human error — people leave their passwords lying around and store them in Excel or other unencrypted applications.