200 most common passwords of 2021. Is your favorite here?

123456 is the most popular password, according to NordPass 2021 research. In addition, it is the first password in 43 countries out of the 50 analyzed and it is also the most popular in the world.

This year’s research published by NordPass not only features the top 200 passwords in the world, but also covers the top 200 passwords from 50 different countries. Readers can also explore the most common passwords among different genders in all of the countries studied.

Here are the 20 most common passwords in the world:

1.123456
2. 123456789
3. 12345
4.zerty
5.password
6. 12345678
7. 111111
8. 123123
9. 1234567890
10. 1234567
11. qwerty123
12,000,000
13. 1q2w3e
14. aa12345678
15. abc123
16. password1
17. 1234
18. qwertyuiop
19. 123321
20. password1

Trends and differences between countries and genders.

Overall, similar trends have been observed around the world.

1. Easy number combinations, such as the winning “123456”, are popular around the world. In fact, “123456” was the most popular password in 43 of the 50 countries analyzed. The main passwords in the remaining seven countries were not that different: in India the first password was the word “password”, Indonesia – “12345”, Japan – “password”, Portugal – “12345”, Spain – “12345”, Thailand – “12345”, Ukraine – “qwerty”.

2. “Qwerty” and its variations or localized versions of “qwerty” (eg, “azerty” in French-speaking countries) are also popular in all of the countries analyzed.

3. People everywhere use affectionate words, like “iloveyou” and its localized versions (“ichliebedich”, “tequiero” and so on), as well as “sunshine” or “soleil”, which means “sun” in French, “” Princess “or” corazon “, which means” heart “in Spanish and is often used in
direct address as a term of affection.

4. This research also shows that people tend to use their own names as passwords, as female names predominantly dominate female lists and male names dominate male lists.

5. Entertainment and popular culture also play a big role in people’s passwords. The passwords “naruto”, “pokemon”, “kalleanka” (Donald Duck in Swedish) are just a few cartoon characters that make the list. In terms of music, various groups and
artists were also included in the list, including “blink-182” and “eminem”. Interestingly, “metallica” and “slipknot” were very popular passwords among men, appearing on men’s lists in several countries. They weren’t that popular among women, who lean towards different music
styles and more often use “justinbieber”, “oneirection” and “tokiohotel” as passwords.

6. Sports, especially football, were perhaps the most dominant on the lists. In almost every country, people often use local football teams as passwords. For example, “colocolo” in Chile, “nacional” in Brazil, “sparta” in the Czech Republic, “marseille” in France, “schalke04” in Germany, “olympiakos” in Greece, and many others. The UK password list contained almost every Premier League team, with ‘Liverpool’ and ‘Arsenal’ leading the way. It’s also worth noting that football-related passwords were more common among men.

Passwords weaken

NordPass research also illustrates how weak major passwords are by showing how long it would take for a hacker to crack that password. While the “Time to crack” metric is indicative and depends on various technological aspects, it is a good benchmark that shows how poor these passwords are.

Overall, in the global list, 169 of the 200 passwords can be cracked in less than a second. That’s 84.5%, whereas last year passwords seemed a bit stronger – 73% of passwords could be cracked in under a second.

“Unfortunately, passwords keep getting weaker and people still don’t maintain good password hygiene,” says Jonas Karklys, CEO of NordPass. “It is important to understand that passwords are the gateway to our digital life, and as we spend more and more time online, it becomes extremely important to take better care of our cybersecurity. ”

“The point of this research is to show that bad passwords are still a really big deal around the world, but there are some simple steps you can take to keep your password from appearing on the list year round.” next ”, Jonas Karklys, CEO of NordPass.

Found your password on the “most popular” list?

Jonas Karklys, CEO of NordPass, advises to take a few simple steps to improve the hygiene of your passwords.

1. If you found your password in the list, be sure to change it to a unique and strong password. Ideally, use an online password generator or in your password manager app to create a really complex password.

2. Store your passwords in a password manager. Nowadays, the average person has around 100 accounts, so it would be impossible to remember all passwords if they are indeed unique and complex. Password managers are a great solution for this, but be sure to
use a trustworthy, reliable and ideally third-party audited supplier.

3. Use multi-factor authentication. Whether it’s biometric authentication, a phone message, or a physical key, it’s always a good idea to add an extra layer of security to your password.

Methodology:

The list of passwords was compiled in partnership with independent researchers who specialize in finding cybersecurity incidents. They evaluated a 4TB database. The researchers categorized the data into various verticals, which allowed them to perform a
statistical analysis based on country and gender.

Regarding the gender vertical, the data searched was categorized by gender only if it included a gender key. If the violated data did not contain the data key, it was classified as “unknown”.