We’re giving you a list of the 10 most common passwords. Why? Because the number of passwords that the average person must keep track of is rising rapidly. In fact, the average person has as many as 100 passwords to remember. It can be tempting to fall into a pattern of creating easy, memorable passwords for your accounts. But be careful: the easier your passwords are to guess, the more susceptible you are to cybercriminals.
The majority of what makes a password easy to guess is how common it is. Here, we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 most commonly used passwords in the U.S.
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The most used passwords are all extremely similar, fairly predictable, and follow the same patterns. Variations of “123456789” are very popular and dominate this list, taking up seven of the ten rankings. In terms of alphabetical passwords, nearly a quarter of Americans use the phrase “qwerty” as an exact or partial match in their passwords.
Here’s a list of the most common passwords in the U.S.:
Here are some lessons we can learn from this top 10 passwords list:
Don’t be surprised if your password made this list. But just because your password isn’t in the top 10 doesn’t mean you’re in the clear either. There are many common password patterns and categories that can make your accounts vulnerable. A recent study analyzed thousands of passwords and identified common categories that show up across the board. The top of the most hacked passwords list includes themes such as:
Hackers will be able to guess your password much more easily if:
Weak and reused passwords are one of the most common reasons why data breaches occur at organizations or individuals. Luckily these are some easy ways you can improve the security of your passwords:
The first thing you should do after discovering your password has made this list is to change your password to something long, unique, and complex. Here are some tips for how to create a strong password that won’t show up on a “common password list” ever again.
If you have easy-to-guess passwords, you might not think you’re a target, but you’re at a higher risk of a data breach. When your password is stolen on one account, hackers can easily access other accounts, including banking and financial information, which can lead to credit card fraud and identity theft.
These crimes aren’t only dangerous to your finances and personal information—they’re also a pain to resolve. The Federal Trade Commission estimates that recovering from identity theft can take six months or 200 hours of work.
“I’ve been using the internet since I was 13 and I’ve been in numerous data leaks.
—Ben Silver, Manager of IT Support, BentoBox
When I started using Dashlane, I could easily see that I had 600 reused passwords. But more importantly to me, I could quickly see which critical passwords had been leaked. For instance, I need to know right away if someone has my bank password.”
If you know your passwords are weak, and you’re ready to level up your cybersecurity, you don’t have to do it alone—Dashlane’s Password Generator provides an easy way to apply all the rules, tips, and best practices surrounding password generation.
Because it can be hard to remember the strong, complicated passwords that Dashlane’s Password Generator creates for you, you can also take advantage of Dashlane’s password manager. This tool has several layers of security built in, so you can store all your passwords, payments, and personal info in one secure location—without worrying about hackers gaining access. If you find yourself using or witnessing weak and reused passwords at work, your organization should consider getting a business password manager.