2016’s Most Common Passwords

January 16, 2017 | Peak Forensics

Do you know someone who’s account was hacked this past year?  Perhaps it was you?  With the sheer number of services notifying users of account compromises, there’s a good chance you or someone you know was hacked this past year.  Poor passwords are often to blame.

Cybersecurity firm Keeper is out with their list of the most commonly used passwords in 2016 and the takeaway is that we are making it easy for hackers…  According to Keeper, the most commonly used password used in 2016 was “123456.”  The next most commonly used?  The ever slightly more complex “123456789.”  Does anyone else agree with me that if you are using either of these passwords to secure something you care about, you deserve whatever happens?  OK, I kid, but seriously who thinks these are good passwords?  Apparently over 17% of us do!

Here is the full listing of the 25 most commonly used passwords in 2016 according to Keeper (https://blog.keepersecurity.com/2017/01/13/most-common-passwords-of-2016-research-study/):

  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
  21. google
  22. 1q2w3e4r5t
  23. 123qwe
  24. zxcvbnm
  25. 1q2w3e

 

See any that look familiar?  If so, I hope you take a few moments to pick something much more secure.  I always suggest using a long string that mixes upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.

Choose a phrase that you won’t forget, such as “I proposed to my wife in Hawaii” and replace several characters with numbers or special characters.  “1propos#d2myW!feinH4w4ii” would be pretty easy to remember after using it a few times and at 25 mixed characters, would be pretty challenging to brute force attack.  Give it a shot and see what you can come up with!

ABOUT Peak Forensics: Peak Forensics is a full service Computer Forensics, Electronic Discovery and Consulting firm in Phoenix, Arizona.  Peak Forensics provides experienced, professional computer forensics services, client centric electronic discovery and seasoned testimonial and trial consulting services.  Peak’s CEO and founder, Jefford Englander, has been actively participating in computer forensics and ESI investigations for 15 years and has a background in local and federal law enforcement and the civil litigation realm.  From ESI collection to forensic analysis, hosted review, reporting and expert testimony, Peak can lead you to focused information.

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