by Personal passwords give you access to, among other things, your game accounts and the streaming platforms you use. It is even more important that your passwords are not easy to crack. Unfortunately, a list of the most popular passwords for 2023 proves otherwise.
As you browse the Internet, you need more and more accounts and access data, which are absolutely necessary on different websites. Be it your expensive gaming account, access to streaming providers or login details for online banking.
Without your passwords, you will no longer have access to your data and the different platforms you use. However, many make it easier for hackers to guess the passwords they use by choosing simple sequences of numbers or easy-to-guess words as passwords. Here you can find out which are the worst passwords in 2023. Is your favorite password included?
Popular passwords are cracked in seconds
What are this year’s weakest passwords? Security company Nord Security Inc. worked with independent researchers to compile a list of the most popular passwords. They have been published annually on nordpass.com since 2019.
Most results apply worldwide, but the top 200 can also be filtered by country of origin. Here are the 10 most popular passwords in Germany.
| classification | password | Time needed to break | Number |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | administrator | <1 second | 18,997 |
| two | 123456 | <1 second | 16,914 |
| 3 | zwieback | 2 hours | 9,039 |
| 4 | 12345678 | <1 second | 5,860 |
| 5 | 123456789 | <1 second | 5,515 |
| 6 | yxcvbnm | 6 seconds | 5,419 |
| 7 | password | <1 second | 4,848 |
| 8th | bad password | 2 months | 3,011 |
| 9 | 12345 | <1 second | 2,897 |
| 10 | Niklas23 | 3 hours | 2,818 |
Passwords made up of simple numerical sequences and simple words like password/password are very noticeable. These passwords are discovered in a few seconds or even a fraction of a second. Once a password becomes more complex, decryption takes significantly longer. This report shows how quickly passwords can be cracked.
How did this list come about? The US company and the external cybersecurity research group used huge databases to do this. Your data was evaluated and analyzed. According to Nord Security Inc., no personal data was transferred.
The data obtained was recorded as purely statistical information. This allows for an individual assessment by country and category/platform used. The password lists from 2019 to 2022 are also available for download in PDF format for anyone interested.
Do gamers use better passwords than the general public? No, unfortunately this is not the case. Even in the games category, the top 10 are almost exclusively simply chosen number sequences that can be quickly determined by hackers.
| classification | password | Number |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12345678910 | 112,900 |
| two | 987654321 | 40,653 |
| 3 | 87654321 | 23,323 |
| 4 | qwertyuiop | 16,846 |
| 5 | 12345678901 | 16,663 |
| 6 | 11223344 | 14,852 |
| 7 | 111111111 | 12,832 |
| 8th | 1234567891 | 12,724 |
| 9 | 12345678900 | 12,305 |
| 10 | 123456789 | 12,247 |
How is password strength calculated? Password strength was calculated by independent researchers. To do this, they evaluated the average number of attempts needed to crack a password for a specific platform/category. The best rating was given to a randomly generated password with 20 characters.
At least gamers aren’t in last place when it comes to average password strength compared to other categories. This was given with the value 7.5. In the other categories, users still opted for insecure passwords. Passwords used on streaming service platforms, online purchases and your own email address are rated even worse.
Tips for better passwords
What can I do to make my passwords harder to crack? Thanks to advanced technology, hackers are gaining access to data more quickly and easily. But the more secure a password is, the harder it is for Internet fraudsters to do their job. There is now also an AI that listens to you typing your passwords.
Here are some tips to block hackers from your accounts and access:
- Choose passwords that are as complex as possible: the longer the password, the more time a hacker will need to decrypt it. Even better is a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.
- An extra password per access: Internet users tend to use a specific password for several websites at the same time. If a hacker gets your data, it will be easy for him to steal your other accounts if your login name/email address and password are completely identical. Therefore, make an effort to always think of a new password.
- Update your passwords regularly: Even if you’re now using more complex passwords, you may have older passwords that are too easy to guess. It’s best to update it as soon as possible. To stay even safer on the internet, it is also advisable to continually check even more complex passwords.
- After all, use useful tools, hackers do this too: in the arms race against hacking tools, you can now use programs that make password management easier or eliminate it completely. With a so-called password manager, you only need to remember one master password. The manager manages all other passwords for you. Most tools also offer the function of creating complex passwords with the push of a button.
You can find more tips for strong passwords here
