An analysis of 19 billion passwords shows that users still struggle with password security.

Your password probably stinks. At least that’s what a new study shows. Researchers at Cybernews studied more than 19 billion leaked passwords, and of those, just 6 percent were identified as unique, meaning they weren’t reused or duplicated. To make matters worse, the most common passwords are way too simple. Four percent of all passwords studied by Cybernews—meaning roughly 727 million total passwords—included the phrase “1234.” Phrases like “password” and “admin” were also quite common, indicating that many users still rely on predefined passwords. “The ‘default password’ problem remains one of the most persistent and dangerous patterns in leaked credential datasets. Entries ‘password’ (56M) and ‘admin’ (53M) reveal that users overwhelmingly rely on simple, predictable defaults,” said Neringa Macijauskaitė, an information security researcher at Cybernews, in a statement. “Attackers, too, prioritize them, making these passwords among the least secure.”

The researchers also discovered many passwords that relied on names or, humorously enough, curse words. Sixteen million passwords included the F-bomb, for instance. Studies have shown time and again that we struggle with creating strong passwords. Recent findings from other sources have shown that the most common passwords are remarkably simplistic.

Here were 2024’s top 10 most-used passwords globally, according to researchers:
– 123456
– 123456789
– 12345678
– password
– qwerty
– 123qwerty
– 11111111
– 12345
– secret
– 123123

So if you read this article and it seemed… a little too familiar, perhaps it’s time to update your passwords. At the very least, avoid using “123456.”

Topics
Cybersecurity
Privacy