The numeric combination of “123456“ was the most common password of 2016, followed by “123456789“ and “qwerty“, according to researchers who reviewed over 10 million security codes that became public following data breaches. The study also found that four of the top 10 passwords on the list were of six characters or shorter.
Passwords 12345678, 111111, 1234567890, 1234567, password, 123123, 987654321 were among the top ten in the list.
“This is stunning in light of the fact that today’s brute-force cracking software and hardware can unscramble those passwords in seconds,“ US-based password management company Keeper Security said in a statement.
“Website operators that permit such flimsy protection are reckless or lazy .“
“Nearly 17% of users are safeguarding their accounts with `123456′,“ it said. The study also found the list of most frequently used codes have changed little over the past few years, which means that user education has limits.
The usage of passwords like “1q2w3e4r“ and “123qwe“ indicates that some users attempt to use unpredictable patterns to secure passwords, but their efforts are weak.
Feature Image Source: Reuters