The Passwords Most Likely to be Breached

The old adage continues to ring true - hackers would rather log in than break in. 

The biggest reason this continues to be a viable path is because of weak credentialing, which starts with the usernames and passwords used by employees, and even network administrators, throughout the enterprise. With this in mind, insurance experts at Alan Boswell Group analyzed the passwords exposed in data breaches to identify the most common password choices, which would also seem to the ones to avoid.

Here are their findings:

• The most commonly hacked passwords overall are simple number combinations, with the leading culprits being 123456, 123456789 and 12345678.
• Names are also easy codes to crack, with the most common names used as passwords being Daniel, Michael, Jessica, Thomas, Ashley, Anthony, Michelle and Nicole.
• Years are another commonly breached password type, with the the most commonly used options being 2020 and 1990.
• Some turn to sports teams, with the most commonly compromised examples being soccer teams, including Liverpool, Barcelona, Juventus, Chelsea and Arsenal. NFL teams are also popular, with passwords comprised of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys being breached the most frequently.
• The sports terms football, baseball and soccer are also commonly used and commonly stolen passwords.
• When it comes to band names, Blink-182 and Metallica lead the way.
• Despite representing guardians and protectors, the passwords most frequently compromised that draw from fictional characters are Superman, Naruto and Batman.
• Monkey, Butterfly and Chicken were the weakest animal-related passwords.
• Orange, banana and flower are the most frequently used and breached plant-based passwords.
• Computer, diamond and silver top the objects used in stolen passwords.