NordPass Reveals Worst Passwords Of 2020 And They're Absolutely Facepalm Worthy
If “password” is one of your passwords, perhaps you should rethink some of your life choices. NordPass, the company also behind NordVPN, has compiled this year’s top 200 most commonly used passwords. Not only does the company list the passwords, but it shows how long it takes to crack each one. This is an interesting list, so let’s take a look.
For millions of people, remembering and typing passwords seem to be a chore. Simple passwords are easy to remember, easy to type, and easy to break. The top two most used passwords for nearly 3.5 million people are “123456” and “123456789.” Those passwords take less than a second to break if you use a common list of passwords to check against or poke at accounts.
Following those is “picture1,” the much loved “password,” and “12345678” rounding out the top five. All of these passwords, because they are published, widely used, and widely broken, are incredibly insecure. If you use any of these, it is time to change your password and perhaps get a password manager, like LastPass or NordPass.
When making a new password, NordPass explains that users should “Avoid using dictionary words, number combinations, or strings of adjacent keyboard combinations.” Even seemingly random patterns on the keyboard can also have a pattern to them, so try not to use a keyboard walk to make a password. As always, there is a relevant XKCD for this (see above).
Again, if any of your passwords are on the top 200 common passwords list, you need to change it as soon as possible. You can take a look at the full list here and see some of the other amusing passwords people use, like “f***you1” (censored), among others.
