Online Safety
zwieback, admin and 1leila1: These are the most popular passwords among Germans
It’s safe if you stick to certain rules – using a bad password is definitely not one of them
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Passwords are slowly dying out, even if we currently use them every day. And that’s a good thing – because as a look at the most popular passwords among Germans reveals, hardly anyone puts any effort into creating them – and that’s dangerous.
The big manufacturers like Apple, Microsoft and Google also know this – they have been working for years to ensure that in the future we will no longer need passwords and will instead have other options to log in to the Internet securely – yet conveniently.
“shitty password” occupies a conspicuously high ranking
But until that happens, the annual lists of the most popular – and mostly shockingly bad – passwords will remain with us. The VPN service provider and password manager provider Nord Security has collected the most used passwords in the world for the fifth time in a row – once for the entire globe and then at country level.
To illustrate how bad the popular passwords are, Nord Security also states how long it would take to crack the login using common tools. This much can be revealed: Only very few passwords would last longer than 10 seconds – most would be overcome after just one second. Here is the list:
The 20 most popular passwords among Germans
A look at the most popular passwords in the world shows that Germans are not particularly creative. Here too, creations like “123456” and “admin” lead the charts – only after 50 sad places does a somewhat more individual one follow with “123meklozed”. There is a national peculiarity – with “1leila1” at number 15, the Germans apparently want to express their love for Ballermann hits. But: This is also not a good password – because it is very easy to crack.
It’s not difficult at all to create a good password. Although some providers exaggerate their login requirements, they are basically right: As soon as you integrate upper and lower case letters, special characters and numbers, it quickly becomes very difficult for the hacker tools to guess the correct password.
No password twice
However, one-time use is actually much more important than a good password – because even the best password will not protect you if it is lost due to an attack or a data breach at the provider where the login is stored. Once that happens, your super secure password will be out in the open on the internet. And fraudsters are well aware of the fact that some people also use their login elsewhere. Then it is only a matter of time before you lose other access as well.
Therefore, create your own combination for every website, no matter how small it is – ideally with a different email address. Providers like Apple help you with this and put an anonymized address in front of your actual address.
If you want to be on the safe side, many sites also offer so-called two-factor authentication – for example via SMS verification or special apps. It takes a while to set up in some cases, but it’s worth it if someone really tries to take control of your account.
source: Northern Security