The obvious password you use for your devices may be making you vulnerable to a data breach. Keeper Security, a password management software firm, analyzed more than 10 million login details leaked online through data breaches that occurred in 2016.
The most popular password that continues to be used: “123456,” which the firm’s analysis showed was used 17 percent of the time by hacked accounts. The next most common password was the similar “123456789.”
In fact, easily guessed numbers comprised eight of the top 10 most commonly used passwords. Also, passwords like “18atcskd2w” and “3rjs1la7qe” landed on the list. Those may seem unusual but these are commonly used by bots when setting up dummy email accounts for spam and phishing attacks.
The firm did note one piece of progress on the password front: The word “password” finally dropped from fifth position on the list to now eighth.
Seven of the top 15 passwords on the lists are made up of six or fewer characters, which can make them more vulnerable to hackers, the company notes.
"Email providers could do everyone a favor by flagging this kind of repetition and reporting the guilty parties," Keeper's researchers note.
Here were the most commonly used passwords in 2016, according to Keeper Security. If you find one of your passwords on the list, be sure to go change your password now!
1. 123456
2. 123456789
3. qwerty
4. 12345678
5. 111111
6. 1234567890
7. 1234567
8. password
9. 123123
10. 987654321
11.qwertyuiop
12. mynoob
13. 123321
14. 666666
15. 18atcskd2w
16. 7777777
17. 1q2w3e4r
18.654321
19. 555555
20. 3rjs1la7qe
Source: “The Most Common Passwords of 2016 Have Been Revealed, and They’re Terrible,” TechSpot (Jan. 18, 2017)
