The most used password in 2020 according to SplashData's ranking is also the worst: here's which one it is
If your password is also the string of numbers "123456", the advice we have for you is to change it right away. Not only is this the most used password, according to SplashData's annual 2020 ranking, it's also the worst and easiest for an attacker to guess.
After years of experts repeating to the hilt that no, using the word "password" as a password for your web accounts is not safe, many seem to have gotten the message. Too bad that despite the warnings launched by experts around the world, the choice of unwary users has fallen on another "classic" mistake and an even worse choice. Among the top 5 most used passwords on the net, and the easiest to hack, we find "123456789" in second position, then "querty", "password" and "1234567". So if among these you recognize your current password, especially for sensitive accounts such as banking or e-commerce, it is time to change it with something less common.
Password, the ranking of SplashData
As every year, also in 2020 SplahData has analyzed the data collected on the network to draw up the ranking of the most used passwords. The ranking was developed by analyzing 5 million passwords that were revealed after breaches by hackers. The good news is that the word "password" was ousted from the top spot, ending up "only" in fourth place. The bad news is that users still have a bad tendency to use strings of numbers or words that are perhaps easy to remember, but also very easy for cyber criminals to guess.
To date to remedy the problem, many websites offer at the time of account password creation a system that imposes the non-sequential alternation of letters, numbers and special characters, so as to push the user to choose one that is as secure as possible. According to SplashData's analysis, almost 10% of users have used one of the 25 worst passwords at least once, i.e. 500 thousand of the 5 million passwords analyzed were in the top 25 in 2020. Of these, however, 3% were the worst: the string 123456.
Passwords, the 25 worst in the ranking
In the 25 worst passwords of 2020 there are also some "new entries", such as 1q2w3e4r, 555555, lovely or 123qwe. Morgan Slain, CEO di SplahData, ha spiegato che diffondere la classifica vuole essere un modo per far capire agli utenti come proteggersi online in prima persona. Se da un lato quindi vedere spodestata "password" sembra dimostrare che in parte il messaggio è passato, ora l’obiettivo è aiutare a non ripetere l’errore utilizzando semplicemente nuove e facilmente indovinabili combinazioni. Ecco allora le 25 password peggiori, da cambiare subito se anche tu le stai utilizzando per i tuoi account:
- 123456
- 123456789
- qwerty
- password
- 1234567
- 12345678
- 12345
- Iloveyou
- 111111
- 123123
- abc123
- qwerty123
- 1q2w3e4r (new entry)
- admin
- qwertyuiop (new entry)
- 654321
- 555555 (new entry)
- lovely (new entry)
- 7777777 (new entry)
- welcome
- 888888 (new entry)
- princess
- dragon (new entry)
- password1
- 123qwe (new entry)