How difficult is it to choose a Password? Actually, choosing the right password is not difficult—but remembering it sure is! Every day, we use several passwords. These passwords are used for making online transactions, logging into social accounts, opening emails, or even protecting important documents. However, most people tend to choose easy-to-remember, common passwords that are too simple and can be easily hacked.
Here is a list of the top 10 most common passwords that everybody should avoid. According to security researchers, these common passwords are used by millions of people across the globe every day, making hacking them a cakewalk.
Common Passwords to avoid
When you are asked to set a password, what comes to your mind? It is often a simple numeric pattern, names of sports, or common names. You are not alone. Many people around the world use simple aforementioned passwords and sometimes their user names. These are the common passwords to avoid as these are easily hackable.
- Numeric passwords: If we talk about numeric passwords, then ‘123456’ is the top most common password. As a result, it is also a bad password and should be avoided completely. Apart from this, many people use ‘12345678’, ‘1234’, ‘1234567’, ‘123456789’ and even ‘1234567890’. Though some of these are long passwords; these are easy to guess as well.
- Numeric passwords with repeated digits: In addition to the above passwords, people also use numeric passwords with repeated digits. In this category, ‘1111’ is one of the most common passwords. This is followed by other common passwords like ‘0000’, ‘1212’, ‘7777’, ‘1001’, ‘2000’, ‘1010’, ‘2020’ and so on. These numbers are not only used as passwords; but these are also the common PIN numbers used for ATM transactions. These should be avoided completely.
- Password: Don’t be surprised here. This is the second most common password used across the globe. The word ‘password’ itself serves as the password for many. Other variations of this word are, ‘password1’, ‘PASSWORD’, ‘p@ssword’ and ‘passw0rd’. However, hackers know this too.
- Qwerty: You saw this coming, right? ‘QWERTY’ (all caps) or ‘qwerty’ (all small letters) is also one of the most common passwords on this earth. Another variation to this is ‘qwertyuiop’. So you thought you are the only one to use it? It is easy to remember as all these make up the first line of the keyboard.
- Sports names: People love sports and they love to use these names as their passwords. Out of all sports names used as common passwords, the most common are ‘football’, ‘baseball’, ‘hockey’, ‘soccer’ and ‘golfer’. Not only sports name, but some words related to sports are also very commonly used as passwords. These include, ‘jordan’, ‘yankees’, ‘eagles’, ‘arsenal’, ‘ashley’ and ‘nascar’. Have you been using any of these lately?
- Common words related to login: You guessed it right. ‘Welcome’ is one of the most common passwords. Other related common passwords are; ‘letmein’, ‘login’, ‘enter’, ‘admin’, ‘pass’, ‘access’ and ‘secret’.
- Alphanumeric passwords: Ideally alphanumeric passwords are supposed to be the strong passwords. However, if you are using ‘abcd123’ or ‘abc123’; then your account will be hacked within no time. Other common passwords in this category are, ‘trustno1’, ‘password1’ and ‘welcome1’.
- Animal names: Some people try animal names. The most common passwords in this category are, ‘monkey’, ‘dolphin’ and ‘tiger’; again the bad passwords.
- Pet’s names: You would definitely argue here that every person’s pet’s name is different. Then how is it possible to guess it? But surprisingly, many pet owners choose the names for their pets which are very common. These include, ‘Charlie’, ‘Bella’, ‘coco’, ‘max’, ‘Lucy’, ‘oreo’ and so on. As a result, these names are also the most common passwords; in turn the passwords which should be avoided completely.
- Other common passwords: Apart from the above, there are some fairly common passwords such as , ‘dragon’, ‘master’, ‘princess’, ‘solo’, ‘starwars’, ‘iloveyou’, ‘michael’, ‘superman’, ‘batman’, ‘shadow’ and ‘sunshine’.
We have tried to list as many possible common passwords that should be avoided. Apart from these, you should also avoid significant dates, dates of birth (yours or your relatives’), children’s names, spouses’ names, places of birth, and favorite holiday destinations as passwords.
In today’s world, it is necessary to create strong passwords that contain alphanumeric characters, special characters and a mix of upper and lower case. Even better if you create Passphrases using ASCII.
Read: Check the Strength of your Password using Password Strength Checker Tools.
You can make use of some good free Free Password Manager software or an Online Password Manager, that will help you not only remember and securely store your passwords but also create strong passwords every time. There are several random online password generators available. Our freeware PassBox is a handy little tool that will remember all your passwords and even generate strong passwords for your account. You can also check out this portable freeware Password Generator.
We hope that this information helps you keep your online identity and data protected all the time.
