Pop culture references as passwords are very popular – unfortunately

When it comes to passwords, most people still put convenience ahead of complexity and therefore security. If you don’t choose one of the simple classics such as password, qwerty or sequences of numbers, choose one Study by Atlas VPN according to pop culture references preferred.

According to this, the most frequently reused passwords are constantly changing, reflecting trending topics related to celebrity and pop culture. 186,000 passwords were inspired by Taylor Swift and her new album “Midnights”, including “taylor”, “taylor swift”, “swiftie” or “midnights”.

Rapper Bad Bunny, Spotify’s most streamed 2022, was also a popular password role model, as was reunited dream couple Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck. Even the Queen’s death serves as a password template: keywords like “queen”, “queen elizabeth”or “royal family” according to the evaluation, formed 167,000 passwords.

Only streaming services were even more popular than these celebs. Inspired by this, 261,000 people chose passwords based on the terms YouTube, Netflix or Hulu.

News about the tech world was also a model for frequent passwords – above all, of course, Elon Musk, who made headlines with his Twitter takeover: Musk and his new social media platform were processed 74,000 times.

The problem with this is that frequently reused login data ends up on lists on the dark web where passwords are offered for sale. The use of such passwords makes one vulnerable to brute force attacks or other hacking attacks.

Atlas VPN also found the passwords for its evaluation on such lists on the Dark Web. The company therefore warns against being inspired by popular pop culture references when creating a password.

To create a really strong password, the Consumer Center, not to use well-known words or proper names. Instead, it should consist of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.

It is now advised not to change your passwords without an urgent reason – the risk of using passwords that are all the easier to remember is too high. Atlas VPN also warns against creating overly complex sequences of letters and numbers, which in turn can be noted and thus stolen analogously.

The company suggests memorizing a sentence and, depending on the portal, using the first, second or last letter of the word order and varying it with numbers. This means that you can create your own password algorithm, so to speak. You can find more tips for passwords here.