Top 10 Most Common Passwords In The UK
By Jamie | February 9, 2007
When it comes to passwords users will always choose ones related to subject matters that interest them such as family names, football teams, favourite bands, pets etc. There is nothing wrong with this methodology for long as you strengthen them by using numbers, upper case characters and non-numerical characters. Although I wouldn’t recommend using any of these passwords in the top 10 I have given examples of how you could strengthen them.
10. ‘thomas’ (0.99‰)
You could of used tH0m@5 or thomas_US@
9. ‘arsenal’ (1.11‰)
@rs3n@l_gunn3r5
8. ‘monkey’ (1.33‰)
m0nk3y_3890
7. ‘charlie’ (1.39‰)
ch@rlie_ch@plin
6. ‘qwerty’ (1.41‰)
q1w2e3r4t5y6
5. ‘123456′ (1.63‰)
Just don’t bother
4. ‘letmein’ (1.76‰)
pleaseletmein67
3. ‘liverpool’ (1.82‰)
Being a Liverpool fan I was quite pleased to see this ranked as number three. Why not use a players name with some of the letters exchanged for numbers or none numerical characters, speciality foreign players.
2. ‘password’ (3.780‰)
Don’t use password or any other combination!
1. ‘123′ (3.784‰)
The original post available at http://www.modernlifeisrubbish.co.uk/article/top-10-most-common-passwords
- For advice on choosing a strong password see:-
http://psynch.com/docs/choosing-good-passwords.html - If you are unsure about the strength or suitabilty of your password, trying using Microsoft Password Checker available at:-
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/privacy/password_checker.mspx
Topics: General |









June 8th, 2007 at 1:10 am
As many of us know, simple passwords are not at all secure, and overly complex passwords are too hard to remember and type. Enter passphrases of at least 15 characters and NOT in a list of common phrases. Some include:
MyMother’sNOTanIpoder
FrequentDeniers…
How’sMySkyping?
Use your imagination! It’s not that difficult.
June 8th, 2007 at 10:24 am
My girlfriend uses simple passwords but she’s really into her music. So why not use lyrics.
Thanks for you comments
Jamie
June 8th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
Great idea! Song lyrics can make great passphrases, especially if they are obscure or scrambled a bit.
July 24th, 2007 at 11:13 am
One of the common blunders is when users use a number at the end of their password for times when they aren’t allowed to reuse-the last ‘n’ passwords. Often I’ve seen fred1, fred2, fred3, fred4 cycling back to fred1.
Mind you this is all wasted if the password is written on a post-it note underneath the keyboard - believe me - I’ve seen it.
Jason.
theitmanagersjournal.blogspot.com
July 24th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
From an IT management point of view you do your best to educate the end users. Put into place best IT practices that staff should follow. That way if a security breach occurs due to a weak password you’ve covered your back. I think small companies are lot better because they realise what could happen.
Jamie