When it comes to setting our passwords, it appears many of us still don’t take security that seriously.
That’s because new research reveals that phrases including ‘123456’, ‘qwerty’ and ‘password’ are still among the most popular around the world.
In the UK, ‘password’ has overtaken ‘123456’ as the most used password this year, according to NordPass.
The password management company has released its annual Most Common Passwords report, finding passwords vary greatly in different countries and between different genders.
People are still using the same easy to crack passwords, according to a new study, with the most popular ‘123456’, ‘qwerty’ and ‘password’
Men in Britain are more likely to have the likes of ‘liverpool’, ‘arsenal’ and ‘chelsea’ as their passwords, in reference to their favourite football team. This table shows the most popular sports team passwords worldwide
For the first time, NordPass also analysed how pop culture trends influence our password choices.
Among the other most common passwords in the UK are ‘guest’, ‘liverpool’, ‘qwerty’, ‘arsenal’, ‘123456789’, ‘chocolate’ and ‘monkey’.
They may sound simple to remember, but the concern is how easy they are to hack.
Around 83 per cent of the passwords in this year’s list can be cracked in less than a second, the research shows.
They include ‘passw0rd’, which is slightly less common than ‘password’ but no more secure.
Among women in Britain, ‘charlie’, ‘tigger’ and ‘sunshine’ were the most common, as well as ‘password’, ‘qwerty’ and ‘123456’.
Men, however, were more likely to have the likes of ‘liverpool’, ‘arsenal’ and ‘chelsea’ as their passwords, in reference to their favourite football team.
Using a name to secure accounts also remains a common practice of internet users.
In the UK, Charlie, Thomas, Jasper, George, and Jessica were top names used as passwords this year, while the world’s most-used people names for password creation were Daniel, Thomas, Jordan, Michael, Marina, and Jessica.
Pre-configured passwords such as ‘welcome’ and ‘guest’ are also commonly used to secure accounts.
While ‘guest’ is the third most common password in the UK, it is the number one pick in the US.
When it comes to other worldwide trends, researchers noticed that password irritation is also reflected in internet users’ picks this year.
The passwords ‘f***you,” “f***off, “f***you1,” and similar passwords were especially notable in Canada, Australia, and the US.
On the other hand, loving words are extensively used as well — ‘iloveyou’ and its translations into other languages are highly common passwords in most countries.
In the US, men tend to favour numbers in their password.
The logins ‘12345’, ‘123456’, ‘12345678’, ‘123456789’ and ‘abc123’ were all in the top 10.
When it comes to other worldwide trends, researchers noticed that password irritation is also reflected in internet users’ picks this year. The passwords ‘f***you,” “f***off, “f***you1,” and similar passwords were especially notable in Canada, Australia, and the US
Cinema buffs: This table shows the most popular movie passwords worldwide
Looking good: This table shows the most popular fashion brand passwords across the globe
It is a similar story with American women, although ‘sunshine’ and ‘princess’ also sneak into the most common list.
Numbers, ‘password’ and ‘guest’ dominate the top 10 for users worldwide, with ‘bigbasket’ jumping into the top 10 for women.
In Spain, the word ‘swing’ is a very common password, while in France ‘azerty’ sneaks in there and in Germany ‘hallo’.
‘xxxxxx’ makes the top 10 in Japan, ‘Brasil’ in Brazil, ‘1982’ in Nigeria and ‘vip’ in Malaysia.
The findings show that, for a hacker, knowing someone’s location and gender can help crack a password because there are common traits.
For example, they found that overall, women used more positive and loving words, such as ‘sunshine’.
Meanwhile, men tend to use more sports, especially football-related passwords. In some countries, men also used more swear words than women.
Common entertainment terms, including pokemon, superman, blink182, starwars and batman also feature in the list, as do foods like chocolate, cookie and pepper. This table shows artists
Common entertainment terms, including pokemon, superman, blink182, starwars and batman also feature in the list, as do foods like chocolate, cookie and pepper.
‘Mini’, ‘kia’, and ‘ford’ are the most common passwords in the ‘car’ category, and ‘tiffany’, ‘aldo’, and ‘gap’ top the list of fashion brands.
Compared to the data from 2021, 73 per cent of the 200 most common passwords in 2022 remain the same.
Cyber security expert Jake Moore told MailOnline: ‘Poor passwords are often an easy way for hackers to get into accounts and there are tools cyber criminals use to help them gain access such as stuffing password fields with well-used passwords.
‘People often put their passwords on their social media such as their pet names or favourite films, for example.
‘Three random words is a good starting block for passwords but to properly help protect users we really need to see the use of password mangers increased where they are all complex and unique.
‘Password managers should not be feared but many people think that putting all their passwords in one place on the cloud will make them somewhat vulnerable to attack.
‘However, it’s the opposite that is true.
‘The clever use of two factor authentication and robust encryption are a far stronger mix than using the same two or three passwords for all accounts.’