Here are the 200 most common passwords in 2020

Like every year, NordPass, NordVPN’s password manager, gives us its TOP 200 of the most common passwords in France. Rest assured, this 2020 vintage is fabulous and frightening at the same time, since it shows how many French people use excessively weak passwords, such as “hello”, “sun” and many others. Some passwords even consist of a simple first name.

Thus, the first name “loulou” was used as a password by 204,894 users in France. In total, this same password has been compromised no less than 96,201 times, during various leaks or cyberattacks. Note that to achieve this ranking, NordPass hired the services of an independent provider, which evaluated a database of passwords disclosed following several hacks and data leaks.

123456 remains the most common password in France in 2020

The most curious among you will be delighted (or terrified) to learn that the most common password in France in 2020 is none other than 123456… According to NordPass data, this extremely simple combination serves as a password for more than 2 million French. As NordPass points out, it takes less than a second for a hacker to crack this password. In total, this sesame has been compromised no less than 23 million times in 2020.

Then we find other dangerous ideas like “azerty”, used by more than 669,000 people (less than a second to decipher it) or even “Marseille”, used here by just under 200,000 people in France. In this specific case, the decryption time is a little longer, it will take a day for a hacker to find out.

Apart from this TOP 200, NordPass took the time to classify the most common passwords in different categories, among insults, numbers, devices, or even names, entertainment and sports. For example, the word “football” is in 67th place with 60,816 users, while the swear word “slut” is registered in 159th place with 38,304 users in France.

Brute force attack smashes passwords in seconds

It is necessary to remember that these extremely weak passwords can be compromised in just a few moments thanks to brute force attacks or dictionary attacks. The first is to test, one after the other, each possible combination of a password for a given identifier in order to connect to a particular service. The shorter and simpler your password (by not using numbers or special characters, for example), the faster it will fall.

The second method is intended to be similar. It also consists of testing a series of potential passwords one after the other, hoping, however, that the desired password appears in the “dictionary” used. This kind of file with millions of potential passwords is easily sold in the dark corners of the Internet.

Here are some tips for creating stronger passwords:

• As you will have understood, it will be necessary to avoid two-franc combinations, such as “password”, “azerty” or passwords which contain personal information such as your date of birth, your telephone number or your name.
• Never reuse the same password for multiple accounts, and make your passwords longer than 12 characters and be creative: put lowercase, uppercase, numbers and symbols to make them as complex as possible
• To make sure you remember all those passwords, opt for a password manager like NordPass, which will allow you to store them in a secure vault and generate them if you run out of ideas. . At the moment the service is only offered at 1.19 € / month. Click on our link then on Grab the Deal at the top right to have the page in French and take advantage of the offer.

Source: NordPass