NordPass has discovered that “123456” is the worst password in the world.
Boris Zhitkov | moment | Getty Images
It can be tedious to rack your brains to come up with a strong password. However, if you want your email, online banking, and streaming platform credentials to be safe from the clutches of hackers, it’s wise to make the effort.
NordPass, the password management tool from the team behind NordVPN, has published its study of the 200 most commonly used passwords in 2023 in collaboration with independent researchers.
Of the 20 most common passwords in the world, 17 can be cracked in less than a second. So think twice before entering “123456” or the even more creative “password” to secure your online accounts.
The most popular passwords are some of the most convenient combinations, even as cybersecurity threats continue to grow, with over 53 million Americans affected in the first half of 2022, according to AAG data.
The NordPass study showed that 86% of cyberattacks use stolen credentials and that online accounts, emails and passwords account for nearly 20% of the most commonly sold items on the dark web.
To ensure your data stays safe, here are the 20 most common passwords in the world in 2023 – and how long it takes to crack each one:
The 20 most common passwords of 2023
| password | It took a long time for it to crack | Frequency of use |
| 123456 | < 1 second | 4,524,867 |
| Administrator | < 1 second | 4,008,850 |
| 12345678 | < 1 second | 1,371,152 |
| 123456789 | < 1 second | 1,213,047 |
| 1234 | < 1 second | 969,811 |
| 12345 | < 1 second | 728,414 |
| password | < 1 second | 710,321 |
| 123 | < 1 second | 528,086 |
| AA123456 | < 1 second | 319,725 |
| 1234567890 | < 1 second | 302,709 |
| UNKNOWN | 17 minutes | 240,377 |
| 1234567 | < 1 second | 234,187 |
| 123123 | < 1 second | 224,261 |
| 111111 | < 1 second | 191,392 |
| password | < 1 second | 177,725 |
| 12345678910 | < 1 second | 172,502 |
| 000000 | < 1 second | 168,653 |
| admin123 | 11 seconds | 159,354 |
******** | < 1 second | 152,497 |
| user | 1 second | 146,233 |
“Admin,” which hasn’t been on the top 200 list in five years, landed in second place this year.
“It’s one of the passwords that people don’t change,” the report said. “Instead of improving password creation habits, Internet users have taken a different approach by sticking with pre-configured passwords.”
Despite some worthy competitors, “123456” has continued to top the rankings for the world’s most used password for the past five years.
“It was ranked as the most commonly used password four out of five times. ‘Password’ once had that not-so-noble title,” the report says.
For the first time, the study also identified the most common passwords by category.
The No. 1 password for e-commerce websites, email accounts, electronic devices and streaming services is also “123456,” while “UNKNOWN” ranked first for social media platforms, financial accounts and smartphones.
Names are also popular password options among users around the world.
“Isabella” is the second most used password in Austria this year, while “Katerina” is in 11th place in Greece.
A name and number combination, such as “Flores123” charted at No. 5 in Mexico and “Kento123!” was No. 17 in Malaysia.
The love of football among UK residents is reflected in their choice of passwords: the names of English Premier League football clubs “Liverpool”, “Arsenal” and “Chelsea” take 4th, 6th and 10th place respectively .
Of the 20 most common passwords in China, 11 were numbers only.
“Internet users in China often use numbers in their passwords. While ‘123456’ is the most commonly used password in the country, other number sequences such as ‘111111’, ‘000000’ and ‘12345678’ are also widely used,” NordPass highlighted.
On the other hand, users in the US found a preference for using harsh words, with “Shitbird” coming in at number 16.
Do not miss: