What are the weakest passwords of the year? Here is the complete list of the least secure ones and to avoid in your profiles
The decade is coming to an end, we are in the midst of a technological revolution and the market launches new devices every day, yet there are still those who use insecure passwords that are easily evaded by cyber criminals. Thus exposing themselves to all the risks that are hidden behind our smartphones and other perennially connected devices and therefore penetrable by prying eyes.
Despite the many awareness campaigns, news reports and recommendations of the authorities, users out of laziness or poor memory choose access keys very easy to force, such as “123456” or even worse simply the term “password”. Choosing these sequences of numbers and words is like leaving the front door open, allowing thieves to enter undisturbed. The SplashData platform has created its ranking of the worst passwords of the year. Find out if there is also the one you use in all your social profiles.
Worst passwords of 2019: users do not learn the lesson
SplashData has created again in 2019 the ranking of the most fragile passwords. The report is based on 5 million security keys forced in the last year and shared in hacker communities around the world. The survey reveals a rather worrying fact: forced passwords are more or less the same as in previous years, so people still remain rather insensitive to the problem.
The word “password” fortunately lost points compared to last year, but still remains in the top five; as well as the set of numbers “123456” and “123456789”. Aside from these evergreens, we notice some new entries in the ranking. The first is “qwertyuiop” which, to the less attentive may seem strong, but in fact, if you look at the keyboard you will immediately notice that it is the sequence of the first line of keys. In short, it is really among the easiest passwords to guess. Next to it there is also the repetition of the number seven or other numbers.
Here are the three worst passwords of 2019
Unbelievable but true, even in 2019 in the first position in the ranking we find the classic “123456” followed by “123456789”. In short, users like numbers a lot, the problem is that they are also loved by hackers who find them and use them to sneak into victims’ systems.
In third position stands out “qwerty” that gains six positions: probably people think it is impregnable, yet it is among the most popular and easy to find. In the last two positions of the top 5 we find “password” and “1234567” .
Worst passwords of 2019: what are the new entries?
Of course, the list is composed of many great comebacks, such as “iloveyou” and “welcome” although many of them are in a different position. Alongside these, hackers have managed to intercept new security keys. Among the new entries we find some entirely new words. The first and very interesting one is “dragon” which many users think they can use without any worries. Another word that entered the ranking this year is “lovely”.
There are also mixes of letters and numbers, apparently safe, but very easy to force: these are for example “1q2w3e4r” and “123qwe”. The ranking contains as many as 100 passwords, many of which have been in the report for years. This shows that many people still ignore the risks of the network by entering access keys that are too weak, putting their privacy at risk.