Risk and Compliance Blog

Top 25 Most Common Passwords of 2016

Written by Joe Boyhan | Mar 1, 2017 3:41:58 PM

 

Data and IT security was the number one risk identified in our Vendor Risk Management Report which surveyed 240 global companies.

The table below shows some fairly shocking results of the 25 most commonly used passwords in 2016. This comes from research published by the password management software company Keeper Security, following a review of 10 million passwords that came to light in 2016 via data breaches. Their findings highlighted that that nearly one in six of these passwords was "123456". Read the top 25 below.

1) 123456

2) 123456789

3) qwerty

4) 12345678

5) 111111

6) 1234567890

7) 1234567

8) password

9) 123123

10) 987654321

11) qwertyuiop

12) mynoob

13) 123321

14) 666666

15) 18atcskd2w

16) 777777

17) 1q2w3edr

18) 654321

19) 555555

20) 3rjs1la7qe

21) google

22) 1q2w3e4r5t

23) 123qwe

24) zxcvbnm

25) 1q2w3e

Wondering what the more obscure "18atcskd2w" and "3rjs1la7qe" are doing on the list of most common passwords? The answer; bots. Bots which spam countless sites, forums etc who use the same passwords, have resulted in them showing up on this list.

Of course data and IT breaches get a lot of media coverage and can occur for multiple reasons, but there is one risk mitigation rule that has to be observed. Strong passwords lead to improved security and help to protect the organization and the data. This applies to your third parties and vendors just as much as it does to your staff. Third parties and vendors should be required to follow secure password protocols when handling any of your data.
Download our whitepaper about implementing a framework for a Third Party Risk Management Program.

Source: Huffington Post