Most common password in 2015? ‘123456’

One would think that, after years of exhortations, most people would know better than to use “password” or “12345” to protect their most sensitive data.

Online security expert Mark Burnett said: “The bad news from my research is that this year’s most commonly used passwords are pretty consistent with prior years”.

SplashData analyzed the most common passwords used over the past year from more than 2 million leaked passwords.

“1234567890”, “qwertyuiop” (the top row of letters on a standard keyboard) and “1qaz2wsx” (the first two columns on a standard keyboard) all made the Top 25 list for the first time, reflecting tech companies’ push to make devices and accounts harder to hack.

SplashData does offer tips on improving password etiquette, such as using a password manager like Dashlane or LastPass, and avoid using the same password for multiple sites.

Do you have a safe password, or are your accounts open season for hackers?

When it came to sports related passwords in 2015, the word “football” was number seven and “baseball” was number 10.

The list of passwords shows that many people continue to put themselves at risk by using weak passwords. If thieves chose to take a look at your data or steal it for their own gain, these are the first they’d try.

Once again, “123456” and “password” were the worst passwords of 2015, according to stats from SplashData, a company that makes password management software.

SplashData also drew attention to three relatively new entries: “princess”, “solo” and “starwars”.

“The good news is that it appears that more people are moving away from using these passwords”. The company found that the two worst passwords are also the most-used passwords, and therefore easily cracked by malicious hackers.