SplashData, Inc. a leading password management application developer including SplashID has released a list of the 100 worst passwords of 2018.
The company established the ranking after evaluating more than 5 million keywords leaked on the Internet this year. Their findings highlight the fact that the adoption of security practices is still underestimated by Internet users, the infamous “123456” and “password” passwords remain the most commonly used.
It is noteworthy that SplashData has been publishing the worst passwords report for the past eight years. As for its 2018’s report from the third to the seventh position, the list consists of numerical sequences with little variation and easy to remember, such as “123456789”, “12345678” and “111111”. The term “admin” was in 12th place.
See: A Trove of 1.4 Billion Clear Text Credentials File Found on Dark Web
Another term that was found widely used by Internet users was “Donald,” probably inspired by the president of the United States Donald Trump, who was the 23rd most used password. In spite of the unpublished term, the use of the names and nicknames of famous people is extremely common.
“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,” said Morgan Slain, CEO of SplashData, Inc.
Therefore, it is advisable to use terms, numbers and random characters to create a truly secure password. One tip is to resort to password generators, and use managers like Keeper, 1Password, LastPass, Dashlane, Enpass, Peeker, SafeInCloud, and Keeper.
According to SplashData, the estimate is that approximately 10% of people have used at least one of the 25 worst passwords on the 2018 list. The company also believes that almost 3% of Internet users have employed the worst password, 123456, by least once.
See: This Chrome extension reveals if your password has been breached
Most of the worst sequences were used by users in North America and Western Europe. The report did not include hacked passwords for adult content sites. Top 25 most common passwords by year according to SplashData:
