Worst passwords 2020: If your password is on this list, change it

Yes, even with passwords, old habits die hard. Almost four decades since the advent of the internet, you’ll be surprised that people still choose convenience over security.

NordPass has published a list of the top 200 most common passwords of the year 2020. You can skip right to the table first. Going back to the 2015 list, the worst passwords still commonly included 123456 and password. Fast-forward five years later, and these examples are still very much in use. Such passwords do nothing to deter a hacker from taking control of your email account.

First, check if your password is on the list, then see an overview of passwords you should avoid based on our analysis of what made it to this years’ list. We will then discuss what you can do to strengthen your password. This list shows the number of users using the password, how long it would take an attacker to crack, and the number of times it has been exposed.

1. Passwords: What You Should Avoid

From the list, it is clear that as a general rule, you should avoid using: –

1. Pure numbers only, especially numbers in sequence such as 123456 and 456789. Other recurrent numbers-only passwords that feature on this list are those that repeat the same number, such as 11111111, 555555 as well as number patterns like 123123 and 101010.

2. Words found in the dictionary.

3. Common names of people. For instance, michael and ashley.

4. Variations of the word password like password1, password123. Even when used in combination with numbers, they are still just a terrible idea.

5. Pet names (terms of endearment) such as sunshine and princess.

6. Passwords generated from characters that are adjacent to each other on the keyboard such as qwerty. 1qaz2wsx seems like a complex password, but it is actually a cluster of keys on the left-hand side of the keyboard.

7. Also, avoid using swear words.

8. Another interesting thing to note from this list is that all passwords appearing on this list lack a special character.

Passwords with the characteristics described above are the most vulnerable. The majority would take less than a second to decipher using either dictionary attacks, brute-force attacks, or simple human guesswork.

2. Recommendations: How to Create a Strong Password

Email compromise is on the rise every day with hackers armed with new, advanced, and more sophisticated techniques to penetrate systems via email. As such, the importance of having a strong password as the first step cannot be overstated.

If you have any of the above passwords, we would definitely recommend changing it. However, if you do not necessarily want to discard your password altogether, consider ways to strengthen it by doing the following:

1. First, strengthen your password by adding a combination with upper and lower case letters.

2. Second, add special characters to your password.

3. Third, make your password longer – preferably over 10 characters. And no, even though it has 10 characters, 1234567890 doesn’t qualify. In addition to being long, your password should have a combination of numbers, letters, symbols.

If your email account has already been hacked, read our guide on what to do if your email has been compromised. While vendors need to be reminded that allowing users to create easy and simple passwords on their platforms does nothing to protect the privacy and security of users, it is also up to us to take responsibility for our own accounts. See more tips on how to create stronger passwords.

3. Worst Passwords of the Year 2020

Source: NordPass

No.	Password	No. of users	No. of times exposed	Time to crack it
1	123456	2,543,285	23,597,311	Less than a second
2	123456789	961,435	7,870,694	Less than a second
3	picture1	371,612	11,190	3 hours
4	password	360,467	3,759,315	Less than a second
5	12345678	322,187	2,944,615	Less than a second
6	111111	230,507	3,124,368	Less than a second
7	123123	189,327	2,238,694	Less than a second
8	12345	188,268	2,389,787	Less than a second
9	1234567890	171,724	2,264,884	Less than a second
10	senha	167,728	8,213	10 seconds
11	1234567	165,909	2,516,606	Less than a second
12	qwerty	156,765	3,946,737	Less than a second
13	abc123	151,804	2,877,689	Less than a second
14	Million2	143,664	162,609	3 hours
15	000000	122,982	1,959,780	Less than a second
16	1234	112,297	1,296,186	Less than a second
17	iloveyou	106,327	1,645,337	Less than a second
18	aaron431	90,256	30,576	3 hours
19	password1	87,556	2,418,984	Less than a second
20	qqww1122	85,476	122,481	52 minutes
21	123	84,438	1,042,952	Less than a second
22	omgpop	77,492	334	2 minutes
23	123321	73,506	928,060	Less than a second
24	654321	69,148	953,549	Less than a second
25	qwertyuiop	64,632	1,108,463	Less than a second
26	qwer123456	58,096	5,339	4 seconds
27	123456a	57,472	980,190	Less than a second
28	a123456	55,548	684,476	Less than a second
29	666666	53,146	889,482	Less than a second
30	asdfghjkl	52,961	547,528	Less than a second
31	ashley	52,031	440,413	2 minutes
32	987654321	50,097	599,177	Less than a second
33	unknown	47,995	28,930	17 minutes
34	zxcvbnm	46,952	592,416	Less than a second
35	112233	46,450	543,303	Less than a second
36	chatbooks	45,883	0	1 day
37	20100728	44,914	3,468	Less than a second
38	123123123	42,781	505,507	Less than a second
39	princess	42,230	489,024	Less than a second
40	jacket025	41,909	44,594	8 hours
41	evite	41,720	14,941	10 seconds
42	123abc	40,431	648,551	Less than a second
43	123qwe	40,203	726,928	Less than a second
44	sunshine	39,456	418,052	Less than a second
45	121212	39,342	741,345	Less than a second
46	dragon	39,011	984,209	Less than a second
47	1q2w3e4r	38,865	658,945	Less than a second
48	5201314	38,307	236,311	26 seconds
49	159753	38,028	442,018	Less than a second
50	123456789	37,280	7,870,694	Less than a second
51	pokemon	37,197	242,154	Less than a second
52	qwerty123	35,827	624,152	Less than a second
53	Bangbang123	35,545	40	2 days
54	jobandtalent	34,512	5	3 years
55	monkey	34,124	992,381	Less than a second
56	1qaz2wsx	33,819	775,475	Less than a second
57	abcd1234	33,179	358,842	Less than a second
58	default	32,486	15,108	3 minutes
59	aaaaaa	31,939	401,780	Less than a second
60	soccer	31,805	314,004	Less than a second
61	123654	31,649	369,852	Less than a second
62	ohmnamah23	31,288	33,523	12 Days
63	12345678910	31,097	167,550	Less than a second
64	zing	30,979	486	1 second
65	shadow	30,751	348,409	Less than a second
66	102030	30,664	237,904	Less than a second
67	11111111	30,336	30,336	Less than a second
68	asdfgh	30,281	373,547	Less than a second
69	147258369	29,432	242,324	Less than a second
70	qazwsx	29,192	510,424	Less than a second
71	qwe123	28,926	642,523	Less than a second
72	michael	28,754	434,784	8 seconds
73	football	28,496	434,784	Less than a second
74	baseball	28,278	326,058	Less than a second
75	1q2w3e4r5t	28,092	1,199,289	Less than a second
76	party	27,907	21,993	10 seconds
77	daniel	27,076	376,065	5 seconds
78	asdasd	26,837	281,210	Less than a second
79	222222	26,836	584,874	Less than a second
80	myspace1	26,363	737,761	3 hours
81	asd123	26,310	316,743	Less than a second
82	555555	26,187	558,726	Less than a second
83	a123456789	26,051	167,344	Less than a second
84	888888	25,736	347,798	Less than a second
85	7777777	25,634	633,437	Less than a second
86	fuckyou	25,618	557,507	Less than a second
87	1234qwer	25,598	419,377	Less than a second
88	superman	25,557	343,392	Less than a second
89	147258	24,643	207,272	Less than a second
90	999999	24,534	360,129	Less than a second
91	159357	24,359	244,867	Less than a second
92	love123	23,758	336,212	Less than a second
93	tigger	23,706	249,469	Less than a second
94	purple	23,214	231,133	Less than a second
95	samantha	23,168	218,728	Less than a second
96	charlie	23,157	315,953	Less than a second
97	babygirl	23,139	244,615	Less than a second
98	88888888	22,984	304,420	Less than a second
99	jordan23	22,711	333,759	Less than a second
100	789456123	22,592	389,398	Less than a second
101	jordan	22,449	305,014	Less than a second
102	anhyeuem	22,265	47,486	Less than a second
103	killer	22,242	322,975	Less than a second
104	basketball	22,060	224,737	10 seconds
105	michelle	22,012	285,542	3 hours
106	1q2w3e	21,906	513,929	Less than a second
107	lol123	21,881	188,087	Less than a second
108	qwerty1	21,610	586,071	Less than a second
109	789456	21,589	293,902	Less than a second
110	6655321	21,575	23,705	9 seconds
111	nicole	21,483	284,519	2 minutes
112	naruto	21,458	250,894	Less than a second
113	master	21,445	318,868	Less than a second
114	chocolate	21,409	216,898	3 seconds
115	maggie	21,366	214,719	Less than a second
116	computer	21,330	487,519	Less than a second
117	hannah	21,277	224,785	Less than a second
118	jessica	21,166	330,185	7 seconds
119	123456789a	21,110	320,341	Less than a second
120	password123	20,835	123,063	Less than a second
121	hunter	20,815	249,360	Less than a second
122	686584	20,664	34	43 Seconds
123	iloveyou1	20,332	399,592	1 Second
124	987654321	20,157	599,177	Less than a second
125	justin	20,151	262,185	2 Minutes
126	cookie	20,065	193,597	Less than a second
127	hello	19,998	255,676	Less than a second
128	blink182	19,956	295,502	Less than a second
129	andrew	19,905	268,415	2 Minutes
130	25251325	19,744	25,524	7 Minutes
131	love	19,723	349,712	Less than a second
132	987654	19,544	274,671	Less than a second
133	bailey	19,350	168,117	2 Minutes
134	princess1	19,344	365,618	1 Second
135	123456	19,190	23,597,311	Less than a second
136	101010	19,133	241,446	Less than a second
137	12341234	19,109	202,305	Less than a second
138	a801016	19,040	25,156	33 Seconds
139	1111	19,008	253,728	Less than a second
140	1111111	18,905	254,685	Less than a second
141	anthony	18,812	264,517	17 Minutes
142	yugioh	18,792	40,030	2 Minutes
143	fuckyou1	18,739	390,506	Less than a second
144	amanda	18,705	218,518	2 Minutes
145	asdf1234	18,698	215,813	Less than a second
146	trustno1	18,651	228,101	Less than a second
147	butterfly	18,273	207,325	Less than a second
148	x4ivygA51F	18,267	41,860	12 Days
149	iloveu	18,188	222,280	Less than a second
150	batman	18,161	208,555	Less than a second
151	starwars	18,159	180,216	Less than a second
152	summer	18,026	216,978	Less than a second
153	michael1	18,026	300,551	Less than a second
154	00000000	17,978	198,003	Less than a second
155	lovely	17,964	271,829	Less than a second
156	jakcgt333	17,935	18,649	3 Hours
157	buster	17,929	227,120	Less than a second
158	jennifer	17,846	251,750	2 Hours
159	babygirl1	17,805	290,516	2 Seconds
160	family	17,706	196,605	2 Minutes
161	456789	17,626	162,868	Less than a second
162	azerty	17,541	315,309	Less than a second
163	andrea	17,485	225,646	2 Minutes
164	q1w2e3r4	17,433	289,649	Less than a second
165	qwer1234	17,400	291,618	Less than a second
166	hello123	17,363	188,975	Less than a second
167	10203	17,286	18,344	Less than a second
168	matthew	17,053	227,357	17 Minutes
169	pepper	17,031	198,043	Less than a second
170	12345a	16,983	452,079	Less than a second
171	letmein	16,951	214,700	Less than a second
172	joshua	16,939	264,829	2 Minutes
173	131313	16,919	275,113	Less than a second
174	123456b	16,814	1 Second	98,329
175	madison	16,770	146,287	Less than a second
176	Sample123	16,762	53,251	3 Hours
177	777777	16,679	370,253	Less than a second
178	football1	16,662	338,437	Less than a second
179	jesus1	16,619	296,697	Less than a second
180	taylor	16,616	180,209	7 Seconds
181	b123456	16,564	80,447	1 Second
182	whatever	16,506	196,208	Less than a second
183	welcome	16,445	247,442	Less than a second
184	ginger	16,372	185,999	Less than a second
185	flower	16,342	215,178	Less than a second
186	333333	16,335	284,278	Less than a second
187	1111111111	16,334	225,649	Less than a second
188	robert	16,302	238,806	Less than a second
189	samsung	16,218	316,318	Less than a second
190	a12345	16,217	322,387	Less than a second
191	loveme	16,134	234,552	Less than a second
192	gabriel	16,029	151,973	5 Seconds
193	alexander	16,001	200,458	2 Seconds
194	cheese	15,994	169,915	Less than a second
195	passw0rd	15,972	223,605	Less than a second
196	142536	15,895	129,564	Less than a second
197	peanut	15,832	163,861	Less than a second
198	11223344	15,830	153,229	Less than a second
199	thomas	15,817	290,204	8 seconds
200	angel1	15,786	258,800	Less than a second