10 most common passwords you should never use according to an ethical hacker

An ethical hacker has issued a stark warning for anyone that's using a common password or a password that has identifiable information within it.

Strong passwords are absolutely essential for maintaining security on accounts, while there is a balance to be struck between something that's memorable and something that's hard to crack.

Usually, nothing personal and a good mixture of upper and lowercase letters with numbers and symbols in there is considered a safe shout as long as the same password is not used across different accounts.

But a lot of the most common passwords in the world are incredibly easy to figure out.

Speaking to Mail Online about what to avoid when choosing a password, Joe Cockroft, a cybersecurity expert, said: "Using identifiable information, such as a favourite football team, names of family members, or the city you live in, can make passwords easier to determine.

"Threat actors will often use a list of thousands or millions of words that help them crack your password."

These hackers will use these words in a list to try and guess the correct password and access accounts.

An ethical hacker has warned about the dangers of using common passwords or passwords with identifiable information in them / Sakorn Sukkasemsakorn, iStock

The top 10 most common passwords in the world, according to NordPass, are:

1. 123456
2. admin
3. 12345678
4. 123456789
5. 1234
6. 12345
7. password
8. 123
9. Aa123456
10. 1234567890

1. 123456
2. password
3. admin
4. 1234
5. UNKNOWN
6. 12345678
7. 123456789
8. 12345
9. abc123
10. Password

1. 123456
2. password
3. qwerty
4. liverpool
5. 123456789
6. arsenal
7. 12345678
8. 12345
9. abc123
10. chelsea

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.