Also this year we celebrate the World Password Daythe world password day dedicated to online safety culture, and again this year we discover (but it didn’t take long to imagine it) that we keep getting everything wrong with passwords. From the now usual list of the most used passwords in the world compiled by NordPass, with the relative time needed to force them, we discover the disheartening non-novelty that the most used password in the world is always the same: “password“.
How to create a passkey and say goodbye to passwords
The 10 most used passwords
NordPass is a password manager, ie a software that is used to store user passwords and to insert them automatically in the sites that the user visits. For this reason, NordPass doesn’t really know all the passwords used in the world, only those of its customers.
However, it is a good gauge of the situation as this software is used practically all over the world, which is why its list of most used passwords globally it is always (sadly) interesting to read. Also because NordPass also inserts the estimate of the time necessary for a hacker to find and forcewith special software, each of the passwords listed.
Here is the list of the most used passwords in the world (updated to 2022 data), with the relative time needed to decipher them:
- password – 1 second
- 123456 – 1 second
- 123456789 – 1 second
- guest – 10 seconds
- qwerty – 1 second
- 12345678 – 1 second
- 111111 – 1 second
- 12345 – 1 second
- col123456 – 11 seconds
- 123123 – 1 second
At best, therefore, it takes no more than 11 seconds to crack the password. In 80% of cases, however, it takes less than a second.
Same story every year
The matter is now well known, not only to online security experts. If you go to look at the list of most used passwords in previous years you will find the same passwords almost in all positions. World Password Day, therefore, is not enough to wake up users and make them change their attitude on the keywords to protect their accounts and their data.
All the basic rules for the choice of a good password, in fact, they are punctually ignored and hackers have an easy game in their dirty work.
How to choose a good password
Yet the rules for choosing a good password are few and simple: no less than 8-10 characters, use both letters and numbers and symbols, use both uppercase and lowercase, never use names of people, pets, or other affections that could help a criminal guess the keyword.
But above all, there is a rule that hardly anyone in the world follows: use different passwords for different accounts, never recycle a password otherwise, if the hacker discovers one, he discovers them all.
Very uncomfortable rule to put into practice, it is clear, but that is exactly why i password manager which, by now always, also integrate a strong password generator.
How to create a passkey and say goodbye to passwords