Special Report

The Worst Most Common Passwords in America

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: January 25, 2022 1:00 pm

People’s lives have moved online. They watch TV and videos on PCs and smartphones. They do their banking and buy almost everything they use on e-commerce sites like Amazon. People do not write letters anymore – they use email. They store photos and personal videos in the cloud. Some even buy cars without visiting a dealership. One thing all of these activities have in common is that they require a password.

The nature of passwords means that accounts can be broken into. This can happen on an individual level, but the problem can also involve millions of personal records when a company’s passwords are hacked. This has happened to Yahoo, Facebook, Playstation, Twitter, LinkedIn, Adobe, eBay, Equifax, Dropbox, and other sites that you’d think would have impregnable security. It has become a major risk of life online. (These are the states with the most identity theft.)

The chances of being hacked are greatly increased by the fact that people often use passwords that are easy to break. To determine which are the easiest, 24/7 Tempo reviewed a recent study by the VPN service CyberGhost’s educational initiative The Privacy Hub, titled “The Worst Passwords in the Last Decade (And New Ones You Shouldn’t Use)”.

The study revealed that 81% of all data security breaches are caused by weak passwords, and that “Many passwords believed to be deeply personal to you are, in fact, quite common – making them easier to crack – and they could be putting you at an increased risk of being targeted by cybercriminals.” In addition, according to the report, 60% of people use the same passwords across different accounts and 51% use the same password for work and personal purposes. (Here are the most common passwords in America and how long they take to crack.)

The study listed the most common passwords by category. These included number sequences and variations, the word “password” and variations, keyboard patterns, passwords taken from TV and movie titles, personal names, kinds of animals and names of pets, sports and team names, car brands, IT and technology terms, names of games and applications (and sites). names of celebrities and characters, key events, political names and terms, words from nature, expletives, and miscellaneous terms including those referring to food, colors, locations, and love.

Click here to see some of the worst passwords of the last decade

Many of these passwords are astonishingly easy to guess. The easiest include “123456”, “password”, “starwars,” and “Football”. The use of any of the passwords on this list, though – or any other easy ones to guess – shows that people are fools when it comes to protecting themselves online.

password
> Password type: The word “password” & variations

24/7 Wall St.
Most Common Passwords in America and How Long They Take to Crack

hockey
> Password type: Sports & team names

123456789
> Password type: Number sequences & variations

[in-text-ad-2]

golf
> Password type: Sports & team names

Abc123
> Password type: Number sequences & variations

[in-text-ad]

Football
> Password type: Sports & team names

24/7 Wall St.
Countries With the Most Leaked Passwords

zxcvbnm
> Password type: Keyboard variations

Million2
> Password type: Number sequences & variations

[in-text-ad-2]

football
> Password type: Sports & team names

asdf
> Password type: Keyboard variations

[in-text-ad]

thomas
> Password type: Names

24/7 Wall St.
States With the Most Identity Theft

1q2w3e4r
> Password type: Keyboard variations

qwerty123
> Password type: Keyboard variations

[in-text-ad-2]

dragon
> Password type: Animals & pets

jessica
> Password type: Names

[in-text-ad]

password1
> Password type: The word “password” & variations

starwars
> Password type: TV & movie titles

buster
> Password type: Animals & pets

[in-text-ad-2]

qwerty
> Password type: Keyboard variations

cowboys
> Password type: Sports & team names

[in-text-ad]

123456
> Password type: Number sequences & variations

24/7 Wall St.
Small Cities With the Best and Most Reliable Internet Access

ashley
> Password type: Names

passw0rd
> Password type: The word “password” & variations

[in-text-ad-2]

Password
> Password type: The word “password” & variations

rabbit
> Password type: Animals & pets

[in-text-ad]

michael
> Password type: Names

24/7 Wall St.
Most Common Passwords in America and How Long They Take to Crack

lakers
> Password type: Sports & team names

123123
> Password type: Number sequences & variations

[in-text-ad-2]

butterfly
> Password type: Animals & pets

passwoord
> Password type: The word “password” & variations

[in-text-ad]

charlie
> Password type: Names

24/7 Wall St.
Countries With the Most Leaked Passwords

zaq1zaq1
> Password type: Keyboard variations

arsenal
> Password type: Sports & team names

[in-text-ad-2]

baseball
> Password type: Sports & team names

qwertyuiop
> Password type: Keyboard variations

[in-text-ad]

qazwsx
> Password type: Keyboard variations

senha
> Password type: The word “password” & variations

password123
> Password type: The word “password” & variations

[in-text-ad-2]

yankees
> Password type: Sports & team names

jennifer
> Password type: Names

[in-text-ad]

soccer
> Password type: Sports & team names

24/7 Wall St.
The 50 Towns With the Highest Rate of Larceny Theft

monkey
> Password type: Animals & pets

basketball
> Password type: Sports & team names

[in-text-ad-2]

tiger
> Password type: Animals & pets

111111
> Password type: Number sequences & variations

[in-text-ad]

bailey
> Password type: Animals & pets

daniel
> Password type: Names

charlie
> Password type: Animals & pets

[in-text-ad-2]

654321
> Password type: Number sequences & variations