2021 is set to be a record-breaking year for cyber-attacks and data breaches. The previous record was held by 2017. So far, 2021 has had only 238 breaches less than the entirety of 2017.  It’s more important now than ever to protect your accounts with safe, strong passwords. Unfortunately, many people still use very common passwords that even novice hackers can break.  For your safety, we’ve compiled a list of the top 100 most common passwords of 2021. Check to see if your password made the list. If it did, don’t panic. We’ll teach you how to generate stronger passwords to increase your account security.  How Did We Get This Data? Passwords are supposed to be private. The only people who should know your passwords are you and close family members who have to access your accounts.  So how did we figure out what the top 100 passwords of 2021 are?  We started by collecting data from publicly leaked data breaches. This included the Compilation of Many Breaches, Collections #1-5, and other well-known databases. Then, we anonymized the data and detached the passwords to examine them in isolation. In total, we analyzed over 15 billion passwords, of which 2 billion were unique, only occurring once in the entire data set. We then calculated which passwords appeared most frequently and ranked them based on how many times they occurred.  Thus, we arrived at our list of the 100 most common passwords of 2021.  Data Insights  There were several interesting things that we discovered about the ways that people create a password. When someone makes a new password, they are likely to base it on their favorite cities, foods, or sports teams. Curse words are also popular choices.  Many websites require passwords to contain a combination of letters and numbers. Most people formulate passwords by using a word associated with one of the above categories, and then a number that is significant to them. Common number selections include birthdays, graduation years, and anniversaries.  These choices can be easy to remember, but ultimately make for weak passwords. It’s smart to avoid including any personal information in your password. If a hacker could figure out any piece of your password from looking at your Facebook profile, it shouldn’t be included.  Many of the passwords on our top 100 list contain number combinations that are easy to remember. 123456 and 123456789 are the top two most used passwords of 2021.  Other common passwords are those that contain popular names. Ashley, Nicole, Michael, Jessica, and Hannah are all on our list.  It’s also common to see passwords comprised of strings of letters that form a horizontal line on a keyboard. Qwerty, asdfjkl, and qwertyuiop made the list as well.  And finally, the most obvious of all, “password” is the fourth most popular password of 2021.  The 100 Most Common Passwords  Unfortunately, the top passwords of 2021 are much the same as those collected from studies that occurred in previous years. People are still making the same mistakes, choosing passwords so obvious that even novice hackers can decode them. Check this list to see if your password made the top 100. If it did, it’s time to take some serious cyber security measures.  123456 123456789 qwerty password 1234567 12345678 12345 iloveyou 111111 123123 1234567890 1234567 Aa123456. asdfjkl; 1234 abc123 111111 123123 dubsmash test princess qwertyuiop sunshine BvtTest123 11111 ashley 00000 000000 password1 monkey livetest 55555 soccer charlie asdfghjkl 654321 family michael 123321 football baseball q1w2e3r4t5y6 nicole jessica purple shadow hannah chocolate michelle daniel maggie qwerty123 hello 112233 jordan tigger 666666 987654321 superman 12345678910 summer 1q2w3e4r5t fitness bailey zxcvbnm fuckyou 121212 buster butterfly dragon jennifer amanda justin cookie basketball shopping pepper joshua hunter ginger matthew abcd1234 taylor samantha whatever andrew 1qaz2wsx3edc thomas jasmine animoto madison 0987654321 54321 flower Password maria babygirl lovely sophie Chegg123 What to Do if Your Password Made the List If you’ve made one of these password mistakes and ended up on our list, don’t panic. Now that you know, you can start changing your passwords to more secure options.  Now, we’ll teach you our best security practices for creating safe passwords, so that you can increase your account security.  First, the longer your password is, the stronger it is. Make sure that all of your passwords contain at least eight characters. Try to make them longer, if you can.  The reason that longer passwords are stronger is that many hackers use algorithms. The more characters that the algorithm has to decode, the longer it takes to do. A 15 character password takes much longer to break than a 6 character one.  Make sure that you never include any personal information in your password. Avoid using the name of someone in your family, the name of your pet, numbers associated with your birthday or graduation year, phone numbers, and social security numbers. You should also avoid references to media, sports, or hobbies that you enjoy.  Unfortunately, the most secure passwords are complex and hard to remember. That’s where password managers can help.  This software saves your passwords within its secure database. Whenever you go to log in, the password manager will automatically fill your password in for you. Plus, securing your passwords with a password manager is significantly safer than using a browser, or jotting them down in a text file.   Secure Your Accounts Today  Hacking, security breaches, and data leaks become more frequent every day. It’s more important now than ever to secure your account information and passwords.  At Log Me Once, we’re here to make sure that your personal information stays safe. If you found yourself on our list of the 100 most common passwords of 2021, it’s time to secure your accounts. Get started by downloading our password manager today. 

If you’re like most people, you know you’re supposed to be creating complex, unique passwords every time you sign up for a new service—but you might not always take the time to do it. That’s why research shows that around 40% of online users have gotten a notification about a hacked account, a stolen password, or compromised personal data. While you may not have control over criminal attacks like data breaches or hacking, there’s one critical thing you can do to minimize your risk online: use stronger passwords. With the right password strategies, it’s easy to protect your data and block hacking attempts in one fell swoop. If you’re not sure how to beef up your online security, here’s what you should know about finding the right password. Don’t Use Common Passwords We all know that one of the weakest passwords is “password”—but that doesn’t always stop us from using it. In fact, “password” is in one of the 200 most used passwords of last year, along with other popular offenders like “abc123” and “qwerty.” Simple passwords like these may be easy to remember, but they’re also easy to hack. In some cases, it can take a hacker a matter of seconds to get into an account that uses these guessable safeguards. Do Integrate Numbers and Special Characters Letters may be human-readable and easy to remember, but numbers and special characters can help you add an extra layer of complexity to even the strongest password. If you still want to make a password you can remember off the top of your head, try throwing these characters in at the beginning and end of the alphabetical part of your password, or break up the letters by putting numbers in between each one. Do Create Long Passwords Longer passwords aren’t a common requirement for no reason: the longer a password is, the longer it will take a computer to crack it. Many websites won’t allow you to sign up with a password that’s fewer than eight characters, which is a good place to start. However, if you want to create a strong password, it helps to lengthen your choice beyond this minimum requirement! Don’t Make It Personal The more unpredictable you can make your password, the better—which is why it’s important to create a password that no one would associate with you. Though it may be easy to remember passwords that incorporate personal details of your life into them, the last thing you want to do is make it easy for anyone who knows you to guess them. After all, it’s an unfortunate truth that identity thieves can sometimes be people we know and love. To avoid passwords that are easy to guess, don’t use birthdays, nicknames, phone numbers, or social security numbers. You’ll also want to avoid any references to pets, media, sports, or hobbies you enjoy. Don’t Use Sequences No matter how strong the rest of your password is, you should always avoid using any alphabetical or numerical sequence, such as “45678” or “nopqrst.” This section of your password will be predictable and easy to guess—which can negate any protection the rest of your password offers. Do Create a Passphrase A single password can be easy to break, but a longer passphrase can add more protection without making your choice hard to remember. To create a passphrase, you’ll want to think of a multi-word passage, speech, quote, lyric, or motto you can remember with ease. However, don’t forget that it still shouldn’t be too personal, as you won’t want it to be an easy choice that anyone can guess. Once you have this phrase in mind, try using the first letter of each word as an acronym. You can also add numbers and special characters to substitute for certain words or letters. Don’t Use Words from a Dictionary When making a password, make sure you aren’t using a word that you can find in a dictionary. Again, simple passwords are too easy to guess, and computers can crack dictionary-based passwords in no time. Note that it isn’t just the English dictionary that’s off-limits: don’t use any word that can be found in a foreign-language dictionary, either! Do Use a Password Manager Sure, the steps above can be exhausting, especially since most of us have to create new passwords on an ongoing basis. Figuring out complex new passwords using all of the best practices above can lead to a serious case of password fatigue. That’s where automatic password creation comes in. A password generator can be a great way to create strong passwords with a single click, making it easy to safeguard your data with fewer headaches. What’s more, a password manager lets you save your valuable new password somewhere safe—instead of jotting it down on a sticky note or saving it in plain text on your computer. After you’ve gone through the work of creating a great password, don’t waste it by making the final product easy to find! Protect Your Data With Strong Passwords At the end of the day, one of the most important things standing between you and data theft is a strong password. With a little effort, you can protect your data with complex passwords that even a seasoned hacker would take ages to crack, giving you extra peace of mind online. As you work to minimize your digital risk and safeguard your personal and business data, it’s important to get your hands on tools that can help. For automatic password creation, easy password management, and much more, our award-winning security services can help. Sign up today to get the ultimate security for your data!