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These are the worst passwords in the world – do you use any of them?

Published Jan 19th, 2016 9:43AM EST
Worst Passwords 2016

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Each year, security solutions provider SplashData releases a list of what it has determined to be the most commonly used passwords on the Internet. In other words, these passwords are the worst possible options you can choose to safeguard your accounts, because they’re all ridiculously common and are likely among the first options people with any know-how will try when attempting to gain access to your online accounts.

Are you looking to get hacked and you want to make it as easy as possible for anyone and everyone to gain access to your accounts? Feel free to choose any of the 25 options below as your new password.

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Here are the world’s worst passwords as of 2016, along with notes on how their current positions compare to last year’s rankings.

Rank Password Change from 2013
1 123456 No Change
2 password No Change
3 12345 Up 17
4 12345678 Down 1
5 qwerty Down 1
6 123456789 No Change
7 1234 Up 9
8 baseball New
9 dragon New
10 football New
11 1234567 Down 4
12 monkey Up 5
13 letmein Up 1
14 abc123 Down 9
15 111111 Down 8
16 mustang New
17 access New
18 shadow Unchanged
19 master New
20 michael New
21 superman New
22 696969 New
23 123123 Down 12
24 batman New
25 trustno1 Down 1

“Passwords based on simple patterns on your keyboard remain popular despite how weak they are,” SplashData CEO Morgan Slain said in a blog post. “Any password using numbers alone should be avoided, especially sequences. As more websites require stronger passwords or combinations of letters and numbers, longer keyboard patterns are becoming common passwords, and they are still not secure.”

Many sites, especially banking sites, now require a combination of letters, numbers and special characters in newly created passwords, and we always recommend using a password management app like 1password to create complex passwords that are very difficult to crack.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 15 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.