Yahoo Finance Top 20 most common passwords: Cracked in a second
The most common passwords in Australia have been revealed – and most of them can be cracked in under a second.
The most common password is “123456”, research by password management company NordPass found. It’s been used 308,483 times in Australia and takes less than a second to crack.
Next was “password”, used 191,880 times, which also takes under a second to solve.
The third most common password was “lizottes”, used 98,220 times, which takes around three hours to crack.
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A surprising number of people used their own name as a password, NordPass discovered. Swear words were also often used as passwords, with men more likely to use them than women.
Sporting teams also provided inspiration with “tigers”, “bulldogs”, “chelsea”, “liverpool”, “carlton” and “roosters” making the top 200 list for 2021.
Most common passwords in Australia
Here are the top 20 most common passwords in Australia:
123456
password
lizottes
password1
123456789
12345
abc123
qwerty
12345678
holden
charlie
1234567
qwerty1
111111
dragon
1234
1234567890
qwerty123
australia
princess
Password tips
The research comes after the Optus data breach, which exposed the details of millions of current and former customers.
Australia had over 85 million passwords leaked in 2021, NordPass found, a rate of 3.3 per capita.
NordPass recommended people use “complex passwords” and never reuse the same password across multiple accounts.
“A complex password is one that contains at least 12 characters and a varied combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols,” it said.
“Security experts recommend changing passwords every 90 days to keep your accounts secure and bad actors at bay.”
The company also recommended assessing your “password health” regularly to “identify weak, reused, or old passwords and fortify your online security with new, complex ones” and to consider using a password manager.
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