If your password is on this list, you should change it now

More than 2.2 million people still use codes and words like "123456" As "password" for their online accounts, an annual survey released by password manager software NordPass

NordPass, which analyzed a database of nearly 275.7 million passwords in it's report said Basic passwords that take less than a second to crack remain incredibly popular

The most popular one, used by more than 2.5 million users, was "123456."

NordPass's survey of the 200 most common passwords, compiled in partnership with a third-party company that specialized in data breach research, found that among the millions of passwords it evaluated, some 152.8 million passwords were incredibly easy to crack and shared by tens of thousands of other accounts. Less than 122.9 million were considered unique.

Picture1," used by more than 371,600 accounts, was a rare new entry at number three. Just behind it was “password” with more than 360,400 users. Other easy-to-guess passcodes in the top 20 include: "qwerty," "1234," "iloveyou" and "password1

According to research, the majority of people use simple and easy-to-remember passwords, because it’s convenient. But the problem is that most memorable passwords are highly vulnerable to cracking.

Here are the top 20 on the list (see the full list here):

1. 123456
2. 123456789
3. picture1
4. password
5. 12345678
6. 111111
7. 123123
8. 12345
9. 1234567890
10. senha
11. 1234567
12. qwerty
13. abc123
14. Million2
15. 000000
16. 1234
17. iloveyou
18. aaron431
19. password1
20. qqww1122

Common passwords were combinations like "aaron431," "zxcvbnm" -- look at the bottom sequence of letters on your keyboard -- and "x4ivygA51F." "Ashley" was one of the most common name-based passwords, shared with more than 52,000 other users.

Just Released: New chapter of our #CyberEssentials Toolkit.

In this installment, you’ll learn to recover faster from cyber attacks and mitigate damage: https://t.co/CbcAycQdzY #IncidentResponse #Leadership #InfoSecurity pic.twitter.com/jfs2r3AfqZ

— Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (@CISAgov) November 17, 2020

Never reuse passwords across multiple accounts. Create a unique one for each account and make them long — don’t settle for anything shorter than 12 characters, even more if you can. Use a mix of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols to significantly lower the risk of getting your passwords cracked.

Also, make sure to change your passwords at least every 90 days. To create a complex, robust password, take advantage of a Password Generator.

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