If your favorite password is on the list of the most popular passwords of 2023, you should change it quickly

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Personal passwords give you access to, among other things, your game accounts and the streaming platforms you use. It is all the more important that your passwords are not easy to crack. Unfortunately, a list of the most popular passwords for 2023 proves the opposite.

As you navigate 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 your login details for online banking.

Without your passwords, you will no longer have access to your data and the various platforms you use. However, many make it easy 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 what the worst passwords are in 2023. Is your favorite password included?

Popular passwords are cracked in seconds

What are the weakest passwords this year? Security company Nord Security Inc. worked with independent researchers to compile a list of the most popular passwords. These 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 top 10 most popular passwords in Germany.

RankPasswordTime required to crackNumber1admin< 1 second18.9972123456< 1 second16.9143zwieback 2 hours9.039412345678< 1 second5.8605123456789< 1 second5.5156yxcvbnm 6 seconds5.4197password< 1 second4.8488sche ispassword 2 months3.011912345< 1 second2.89710niklas23 3 hours2.818

Passwords made up of simple number sequences and simple words such as password/password are very noticeable. Such passwords are figured out in a few seconds or even a split second. As soon as 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. Their 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 enables an individual evaluation per country and category/platform used. The password lists from 2019 to 2022 are also available for anyone interested to download as a PDF.

Do gamers use better passwords than the general public? No, unfortunately that is not the case. Even in the gaming category, the top 10 are almost exclusively simply chosen number sequences that can be quickly determined by hackers.

RankPasswordNumber112345678910112.900298765432140.65338765432123.3234qwertyuiop16.84651234567890116.66361122334414.852711111111112.832812345 6789112.72491234567890012.3051012345678912.247

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 are not at the bottom when it comes to average password strength when compared to other categories. This was given with the value 7.5. In other categories, users still chose unsafe passwords. Passwords used on platforms for streaming services, online shopping 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 data more quickly and easily. But the more secure a password is, the more difficult it is for internet fraudsters to do their job. There is now also an AI that listens to you typing your passwords.

Here are a few tips to block hackers from your accounts and access:

  • Choose passwords that are as complex as possible: The longer a password is, the more time a hacker needs to decrypt it. Even better is a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.
  • One extra password per access: Internet users tend to use a specific password for several websites at the same time. If a hacker gets hold of your data, it is easy for him to steal your other accounts if your login name/email address and password are completely identical. So make the effort to think of a new password every time.
  • Update your passwords regularly: Even though you may now be using more complex passwords, you may have older passwords that are very easy to guess. It’s best to bring this up to date as soon as possible. In order to be even more secure on the internet, it is also advisable to continuously check even more complex passwords.
  • Use helpful tools, after all, hackers do it too: In the arms race against hacking tools, you can now use programs that make password management easier for you or eliminate it entirely. 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 you the function of creating complex passwords at the push of a button.

    • You can find more tips for strong passwords here

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