You’re Easy To Hack If You’re Using One of These Passwords

Passwords are meant not merely to verify a user’s identity but to provide protection for the said user against malicious hackers. This is why it’s very crucial for all of us to use strong passwords, ones that are not too common or predictable.

In a survey by United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), we learn which passwords are most “hackable.” If you are using one of these passwords they mentioned, consider this a warning.

The #1 most hackable password, unsurprisingly, is ‘123456’.

In a CNN report, we learn that NCSC took it upon themselves to analyze passwords “belonging to accounts worldwide that had been breached” and discovered that the top 10 of the most vulnerable passwords are the following:

• 123456
• 123456789
• qwerty
• password
• 111111
• 12345678
• abc123
• 1234567
• password1
• 12345

Apparently, “123456” is used by 23.2 million accounts while “123456789” follows it with 7.7 million users.

Meanwhile, “qwerty” and “password” are each used by over 3 million accounts.

Other hackable passwords incude those that use sports teams (“cowboys1” referring to Dallas Cowboys or “manutd” for Manchester United), swear words, and names such as Ashley, Michael, Daniel, Jessica, and Charlie. Among musical artists, “blink182” is the most popular while “superman” is at the top spot for fictional characters. Moreover, “iloveyou” is at #11 while “monkey” and “dragon” made it among the top 20.

As an alternative, NCSC suggests that users go for three “random but memorable” terms for their passwords.

Ian Levy, technical director of NCSC, reminded everyone:

“Password re-use is a major risk that can be avoided — nobody should protect sensitive data with something that can be guessed, like their first name, local football team or favorite band.

“Using hard-to-guess passwords is a strong first step and we recommend combining three random but memorable words. Be creative and use words memorable to you, so people can’t guess your password.”