A new year always comes with certain traditions: the arrival of ‘best of year’ lists, New Year’s resolutions, and of course a list of the most common passwords. That’s right, once again we are pulling out the list of shame that contains the most common passwords of 2017. It’s difficult to know how secure you are on the Internet, even more so after recent news, but it never hurts to make sure you aren’t using any of the passwords on this list.
We’ve been talking about this list for a while now, but it’s surprising to discover that many people are still using the same passwords that have made the list in 2014, 2015, and 2016. This year we’ve relied on SplashData, which has compiled a list of statistics using more than 5 million filtered passwords from 2017. You’ll still find classics like ‘123456’, ‘password’, and ‘qwerty’, although this year there are several new additions that follow recent trends like the password ‘starwars’. Without further ado, here are the first 25 positions on the list and their change in position over the previous year.
- 123456
- password
- 12345678 (up 1)
- qwerty (up 2)
- 12345 (down 2)
- 123456789 (new)
- letmein (new)
- 1234567
- football (down 4)
- iloveyou (new)
- admin (down 4)
- welcome
- monkey (new)
- login (down 3)
- abc123 (down 1)
- starwars (new)
- 123123 (new)
- dragon (up 1)
- passw0rd (down1)
- master (up 1)
- hello (new)
- freedom (new)
- whatever (new)
- qazwsx (new)
- trustno1 (new)
It’s worth mentioning that ‘123456’ has topped the list for 2 back-to-back years. But what really needs to be said is that you should by no means use any of the passwords that appear on the list. Security is fundamental on the Internet, so using unusual or complex passwords is necessary. For that it’s better not to use personal information, and use combinations longer than eight characters that mix letters, numbers, and symbols. And although it seems basic, using both uppercase and lowercase letters is crucial to increasing the safety of any password you use.
If you need help managing passwords, there are several great options on Android that will make your life easier by generating longer and more complicated passwords.
