Top 20 most common passwords of all time revealed: ‘123456,’ ‘princess,’ ‘qwerty’

Last summer, SmartPlanet colleague John Dodge posted details on the 500 worst passwords of all time.

Now, Imperva has released a list of the 20 most commonly used (and therefore worst) passwords, culled from a hacking incident that took place in December at RockYou.com, a photo-sharing and slideshow site. Reportedly, 32 million usernames and passwords were breached. (RockYou.com issued a statement indicating that it temporarily shut down its platform after the incident, and now employs encryption technology.)

Imperva posted a summary of the passwords, along with advice on how to create stronger passwords.

The most common passwords are as follows. Is yours among them?

1. 123456 
2. 12345
3. 123456789
4. Password
5. iloveyou
6. princess
7. rockyou
8. 1234567
9. 12345678
10. abc123
11. Nicole
12. Daniel
13. babygirl
14. monkey
15. Jessica
16. Lovely
17. michael
18. Ashley
19. 654321
20. Qwerty

It’s notable how many people apparently use their first names as passwords. Notice how also, in the case of no. 7, the password is simply the name of the site.

Posted in: encyptedpassword, secured password, weak password