Bad habits die hard, according to SplashData’s eighth annual list of Worst Passwords of the Year. After evaluating more than 5 million passwords leaked on the Internet, the company found that computer users continue using the same predictable, easily guessable passwords. Using these passwords will put anyone at substantial risk of being hacked and having their identities stolen.
While terrible passwords such as “123456” and “password” continue in the #1 and #2 spots, respectively, President Trump debuted on this year’s list with “donald" showing up as the 23 rd most frequently used password.
“Sorry, Mr. President, but this is not fake news – using your name or any common name as a password is a dangerous decision,” said Morgan Slain, CEO of SplashData, Inc. “Hackers have great success using celebrity names, terms from pop culture and sports, and simple keyboard patterns to break into accounts online because they know so many people are using those easy-to- remember combinations.”
Each year, SplashData evaluates millions of leaked passwords to determine which passwords were most used by computer users during that year. Even with the risks well known, many millions of people continue to use weak, easily-guessable passwords to protect their online information. 2018 was the fifth consecutive year that “123456” and “password” retained their top two spots on the list. The next five top passwords on the list are simply numerical strings.
SplashData, provider of password management applications TeamsID, Gpass, and SplashID, releases its annual list in an effort to encourage the adoption of stronger passwords.
“Our hope by publishing this list each year is to convince people to take steps to protect themselves online,” says Slain. “It’s a real head-scratcher that with all the risks known, and with so many highly publicized hacks such as Marriott and the National Republican Congressional Committee, that people continue putting themselves at such risk year-after-year.” Presenting SplashData’s “Worst Passwords of 2018”:
Rank 2018 Password
1 123456 Unchanged
2 password Unchanged
3 123456789 Up 3
4 12345678 Down 1
5 12345 Unchanged
6 111111 New
7 1234567 Up 1
8 sunshine New
9 qwerty Down 5
10 iloveyou Unchanged
11 princess New
12 admin Down 1
13 welcome Down 1
14 666666 New
15 abc123 Unchanged
16 football Down 7
17 123123 Unchanged
18 monkey Down 5
19 654321 New
20 !@#$%^&* New
21 charlie New
22 aa123456 New
23 donald New
24 password1 New
25 qwerty123 New
SplashData estimates almost 10% of people have used at least one of the 25 worst passwords on this year’s list, and nearly 3% of people have used the worst password, 123456.
Over five million leaked passwords evaluated for the 2018 list were mostly held by users in North America and Western Europe. Passwords leaked from hacks of adult websites were not included in this report.
SplashData offers three simple tips to be safer from hackers online:
1. Use passphrases of twelve characters or more with mixed types of characters.
2. Use a different password for each of your logins. That way, if a hacker gets access to one of your passwords, they will not be able to use it to access other sites.
3. Protect your assets and personal identity by using a password manager to organize passwords, generate secure random passwords, and automatically log into websites.
To help protect computer users from hackers, SplashData is offering the full list of Top 100 Worst Passwords, and a TeamsID (password manager for enterprise workgroups) demo for businesses.
