Although we really should all know better, “password” itself is the top choice nationwide – and minor variations like “password1” and “password123” aren’t far behind. It surpassed last year’s “123456” as the nation’s favorite chocolate teapot for website security, according to password management company NordPass’ annual survey. Other common key combinations that feature highly on the list are “qwerty” and “abc123”, while many of us are confident enough in our counting skills to get our codes up to “12345678”. Sports names and teams are also popular, with Liverpool topping the current Premier League in the 2022 password rankings. Here are the top 20:
- password
- 123456
- guest
- Liverpool
- qwerty
- armory
- 123456789
- password1
- 12345
- 12345678
- Chelsea
- charlie
- abc123
- Liverpool1
- Oral12
- football
- monkey
- chocolate
- yuantuo2012
- later For more on science and technology, explore the future with Sky News at Big Ideas Live 2022. Find out more and book tickets here While this list of passwords might make you shake your head, there are also signs that we’re getting smarter about keeping our accounts safe. NordPass said the sample of passwords available for its survey was smaller than usual this year as more people adopt measures such as multi-factor authentication. This happens when people choose to sign in to their accounts using authentication apps on their phones, which often now incorporate hardware features like facial recognition, or through text messages and backup email addresses. “With the wider adoption of this technology, passwords simply lose their value,” said NordPass product manager Ieva Soblickaite. “Even if you hack a password, you cannot complete authentication if the user has MFA enabled.”
TIPS FOR STRONG CODE
Use a combination of letters, numbers and symbols Avoid personal information such as names, addresses and birthdays Do not copy passwords across different platforms and services Embrace random letter combinations instead of relying on actual words Use password managers that can generate completely random passwords for you
