What’s the Password? Too Often, Answer Is Easy

Despite recommendations to use strong, unique passwords, people continue using weak codes

By By Dan Hounsell
April 13, 2021

Updating passwords to protect sensitive and valuable IT data shouldn’t be that hard. But it is, apparently. The issue is all the more urgent for healthcare facilities, where data breaches and attacks via email accounts are rising and show no signs of slowing down.

One of the key elements of a strong password is its uniqueness, so CyberNews recently compiled information on the most commonly used passwords and phrases used in passwords by people around the world.

CyberNews collected data from publicly leaked data breaches, including the Breach Compilation, Collection #1-5, and other databases, then anonymized the data and detached the passwords to look at that data in isolation and find the most popular passwords.

Despite security experts recommending to use strong and unique passwords, along with two-factor authentication and password managers for more security, people continue using the weak codes. The top three most common passwords:
123456
123456789
qwerty