How Hackable Is Your Password?

Do you have one of the most commonly hacked passwords?

A web monitoring company, called ID Agent, identified the most commonly stolen passwords found on the dark web in 2020 based on a scan of nearly 3 million passwords.

And the most common categories of hacked passwords include sequential strings of numbers – like 123456, people and pets’ names, sports teams, and famous people or characters. According to the study:

Fifty-nine percent of people use a person’s name or birthday in their passwords.

One in 3 include a pet’s name.

And over one in 5 use their own name.

The company also found that the average computer user reuses their bad password 14 times for various websites and log-ins.

For instance, “Maggie” is the most common name among hacked passwords on the dark web. Sports lovers like to include the word “baseball” most often in their passwords. “New York” is the most common city used, “cookie” is the most common food… And the most common character used in passwords was “Tigger” from Winnie the Pooh. If I mentioned anything in your passwords, that’s a reminder to change your password!