Terrible “123456” is the most found password in data leaks for the fifth consecutive year

For the fifth consecutive year, the password 123456 is the most found password in data leaks, according to password manager developer SplashData. The company analyzed more than 5 million passwords which they found on the internet and which originate from several data leaks.

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Since 2011, the company publishes the “Top 25 Worst Passwords”. By publishing the list the company hopes to encourage users to choose better passwords in the future, as  Morgan Slain, CEO of SplashData explains, “Our hope by publishing this list each year is to convince people to take steps to protect themselves online.”

“It’s a real head-scratcher that with all the risks known, and with so many highly publicized hacks such as Marriott and the National Republican Congressional Committee, that people continue putting themselves at such risk year-after-year,” he added.

In 2011 and 2012 the number on the list was “password”, but since 2013 the password “123456” is on the top position. New in the report this year are “!@#$%^&*” (SHIFT + 1 to 8), “princess”, “donald” and “sunshine”.

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Top 25 Worst Passwords

1 123456 (Rank unchanged from last year)
2 password (Unchanged)
3 123456789 (Up 3)
4 12345678 (Down 1)
5 12345 (Unchanged)
6 111111 (New)
7 1234567 (Up 1)
8 sunshine (New)
9 qwerty (Down 5)
10 iloveyou (Unchanged)
11 princess (New)
12 admin (Down 1)
13 welcome (Down 1)
14 666666 (New)
15 abc123 (Unchanged)
16 football (Down 7)
17 123123 (Unchanged)
18 monkey (Down 5)
19 654321 (New)
20 !@#$%^&* (New)
21 charlie (New)
22 aa123456 (New)
23 donald (New)
24 password1 (New)
25 qwerty123 (New)

The entire list of 100 passwords can be found here.

SplashData estimates almost 10% of people have used at least one of the 25 worst passwords. The company also estimates that nearly 3% of people used the worst password, 123456.

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