One of the most significant events to remember about 2016, is that there were massive data breaches on the internet. Right from individual accounts to service providers, hackers compromised a remarkable number of email accounts and company systems within the same period of time. And since then, we happened to discover the top ever hacked email passwords.
The number one reason that gave hackers an easy way to success was the common easy, simple to crack passwords of the big percentage of the email users. According to anonhq.com, from their analysis of a study by many systems and cyber security companies, such as Keeper, the hacks alone in 2016 saw 9 million passwords compromised. With these statistics, there must be something wrong with some passwords that are giving hackers the easy way to go.
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Characteristics of the Most Hacked Email Passwords
There are common passwords that people use repeatedly, not knowing that they are the first attempts even junior hackers can easily crack. Passwords like [ 123456 ], password, [ letmein ], [ 123123 ], [ qwerty ], [ 1q2w3e4r5t ], and many others. You realize that these are number sequences or arrangement of letters on the computer keyboard. These are most hacked and yet the most used passwords. So lets see which characteristics are common in hacked email passwords!
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- Use of dictionary words. You should know that hackers use password cracking software to try every possible combination in a list of most popular words. You can avoid your passwords from being easily cracked with dictionary attacks by avoiding the use of dictionary words as passwords. Using dictionary words gives hackers a direct route to cracking your password. These include; [ password ],[ football ],[ dragon ], [ basketball ],[ welcome ],[ secret ] and many others.
- A password containing your personal details. People have reluctantly continued to use their personal details for their passwords. However, this is one of the parts that make cracking easy for the hackers. Every hacker knows that most people use their personal details in their passwords. Such details include, names (spouse names, pets’ names friends’ names, etc), birthdays and other personal information such as addresses and phone numbers. But, you should remember that it is very easy for a determined hacker to know these details. It is never a good idea to use personal details for a password. Such passwords include,[ michael ],[ ashley ],[ george ], [ 12/02/1993 ], and many others.
- Word or number patterns. For easy remembrance, people have continuously used patterns for their passwords. However, these patterns are as easy to crack by a hacker, as they are easy for the email owner to remember. Such passwords include; [ 12345 ],[ 123123 ],[ 123456789 ], [111111], [ 77777 ], [ 55555 ], [ abcd1234 ], and many others.
Well, Here Comes The Top 100: Hacked Email Passwords Ever!
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From the many incidents of emails being compromised and the fact that there have been a series of massive data breaches, below is a list of the most hacked email passwords as at the time of publishing. I believe you will notice that most of these passwords have the above characteristics. If you happen to have your password among this list, then I advise that you change it as soon as possible.
| 1. 123456 | 2. password | 3. 12345678 | 4. qwerty |
| 5. 12345 | 6. 123456789 | 7. football | 8. 1234 |
| 9. 1234567 | 10. 123123 | 11. 18atcskd2w | 12. 3rjs1la7qe |
| 13. baseball | 14. welcome | 15. 1234567890 | 16. abc123 |
| 17. 111111 | 18. monkey | 19. dragon | 20. mustang |
| 21. michael | 22. shadow | 23. master | 24. Jennifer |
| 25. letmein | 26. login | 27. princess | 28. qwertyuiop |
| 29. 1q2w3e4r5t | 30. zxcvbnm | 31. abcdefg | 32. ninja |
| 33. jordan | 34. superman | 35. google | 36. hunter |
| 37. iloveyou | 38. trustno1 | 39. ranger | 40. freedom |
| 41. mynoob | 42. tigger | 43. secret | 44. soccer |
| 45. fuck | 46. batman | 47. killer | 48. hockey |
| 49. george | 50. charlie | 51. 1q2w3e4r | 52. michelle |
| 53. love | 54. sunshine | 55. jessica | 56. asshole |
| 57. 123321 | 58. pepper | 59. daniel | 60. access |
| 61. 654321 | 62. joshua | 63. maggie | 64. silver |
| 65. william | 66. dallas | 67. yankees | 68. ashley |
| 69. 666666 | 70. hello | 71. amanda | 72. orange |
| 73. biteme | 74. computer | 75. sexy | 76. thunder |
| 77. nicole | 78. ginger | 79. heather | 80. hammer |
| 81. summer | 82. taylor | 83. austin | 84. merlin |
| 85. matthew | 86. golfer | 87. cheese | 88. chelsea |
| 89. patrick | 90. richard | 91. diamond | 92. yellow |
| 93. bigdog | 94. asdfgh | 95. sparky | 96. cowboy |
| 97. 1qaz2wsx | 98. 7777777 | 99. 123qwe | 100. 555555 |
- If your password appears on this list then, you ought to know that you are giving hackers a direct route into your account. Changing your password to a stronger one could be the only way to secure your account.
How To Create a Strong Password
- You may create a strong password that is easy to remember but hard to crack. It is recommended that your password should be very long with many characters (at least 8-16), lower case, upper case, symbols and digits. For example, “I read a book every day at midday to refresh my mind”, the password becomes, “Ir#[email protected]!” You can replace some words with symbols like I have done, “a” with “#”, “at” with “@”, “to” with “2” and “book” with “bk”. Such a password is easy to remember but hard to crack. The only trick is to twist the letters into lower case and upper case, then including symbols and digits.
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After the 2016 scenarios, you ought to switch from an easy to crack password, to a difficult password that is easy for you, but hard for any other person especially hackers. Have a password that will make life hard for a hacker trying to enter into your account.
Just like you would not leave your house with a simple and weak padlock, a password for your account should not be weak too. It should be as strong as the padlock that you leave at your house door. Strong passwords keep your account safe, weak passwords invite intruders.
