'123456' and 'Password' Remain Worst Passwords of the Year for Fifth Consecutive Year

SplashData published its annual list of the worst passwords of the year this week, sourced from more than five million passwords leaked on the internet this year. Like previous years, 2018 saw numerous high-profile data leaks, but many people have continued to use easily guessable passwords for their online accounts.

autofillpasswordssetup

The new password autofill feature in iOS 12

For the fifth consecutive year, "123456" and "password" are the top two most popular passwords online. New entries on the list include "111111", "sunshine", "princess", "666666", "654321", and "donald" at number 23. SplashData CEO Morgan Slain discussed the list: "Hackers have great success using celebrity names, terms from pop culture and sports, and simple keyboard patterns to break into accounts online because they know so many people are using those easy-to-remember combinations."

The top 10 most popular passwords of 2018:

1) 123456
2) password
3) 123456789
4) 12345678
5) 12345
6) 111111
7) 1234567
8) sunshine
9) qwerty
10) iloveyou

Higher up the list, popular passwords include people's names like "daniel", "hannah", and "thomas"; pop culture references like "solo", "tigger", and "lakers"; random items like "cookie" and "banana"; birth years like "1990" and "1991"; and simple phrases like "whatever" and "test". As Slain explained, using super-simple phrases like these for any account online is a bad idea because it's so easy to guess what they are.

“Our hope by publishing this list each year is to convince people to take steps to protect themselves online,” says Slain. “It’s a real head-scratcher that with all the risks known, and with so many highly publicized hacks such as Marriott and the National Republican Congressional Committee, that people continue putting themselves at such risk year-after-year.”

In total, SplashData estimated that almost 10 percent of people have used at least one of the top 25 worst passwords on this year's list, and nearly 3 percent of people have used the worst password at one time, "123456". Most of the five million passwords that were leaked and evaluated for the report came from users in North America and Western Europe.

To help users stay safe, SplashData said that their passwords should be no shorter than twelve characters and have mixed types of characters in each one. Every log-in should have a different password, and investing in a password management app to store everything, generate random new passwords, and automatically log into websites is always a good idea.

Apple itself introduced a new password autofill feature in iOS 12 this year, making it easy to connect to third-party password apps and fill out your passwords throughout iOS. If you haven't tried it out yet, check out our guide on using the feature to find out how it works.

Popular Stories

Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Friday July 4, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are just over two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:Apple logo repositioned: Apple's logo may have a lower position on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models, compared to previous...
iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Magsafe

iPhone 17 Pro's New MagSafe Design Revealed in Leaked Photo

Wednesday July 2, 2025 8:37 am PDT by
The upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to have a slightly different MagSafe magnet layout compared to existing iPhone models, and a leaked photo has offered a closer look at the supposed new design. The leaker Majin Bu today shared a photo of alleged MagSafe magnet arrays for third-party iPhone 17 Pro cases. On existing iPhone models with MagSafe, the magnets form a...
airpods pro 2

AirPods Pro 3 to Help Maintain Apple's Place in Earbud Market Amid Increasing Low-Cost Competition

Thursday July 3, 2025 7:25 am PDT by
Apple's position as the dominant force in the global true wireless stereo (TWS) earbud market is expected to continue through 2025, according to Counterpoint Research. The forecast outlines a 3% year-over-year increase in global TWS unit shipments for 2025, signaling a transition from rapid growth to a more mature phase for the category. While Apple is set to remain the leading brand by...
Wi Fi WiFi General Feature

iOS 26 Adds a Useful New Wi-Fi Feature to Your iPhone

Wednesday July 2, 2025 6:36 am PDT by
iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 add a smaller yet useful Wi-Fi feature to iPhones and iPads. As spotted by Creative Strategies analyst Max Weinbach, sign-in details for captive Wi-Fi networks are now synced across iPhones and iPads running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. For example, while Weinbach was staying at a Hilton hotel, his iPhone prompted him to fill in Wi-Fi details from his iPad that was already...
iOS 18

Apple Releases Second iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Tuesday July 1, 2025 10:19 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a day after Apple provided the betas to developers. Apple has also released a second beta of macOS Sequoia 15.6. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible...

Top Rated Comments

AngerDanger Avatar
86 months ago
How are people managing to get away with such simple passwords? I take the XKCD approach to password creation—a sentence comprised of nonsensical but easy to remember words. By the time I get done setting up an account, however, I've had to add a number, a capital letter, and a symbol. They only make my originally strong password harder for me to remember.

Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Junipr Avatar
86 months ago
Older Coworkers: “I use one password for everything...”

Me: “Nice! 1Password is a great password management app”

OC: “No app, just the same password every time...”

Me: *facepalm*
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
brofkand Avatar
86 months ago
Free password managers like iCloud Keychain, Bitwarden, etc., make remembering passwords obsolete. There is no excuse to have poor passwords in 2018.
[doublepost=1544799583][/doublepost]
How are people managing to get away with such simple passwords? I take the XKCD approach to password creation—a sentence comprised of nonsensical but easy to remember words. By the time I get done setting up an account, however, I've had to add a number, a capital letter, and a symbol. They only make my originally strong password harder for me to remember.

That was great advice before the advent of cross platform secure password managers, but today I'd say using a password manager to generate a random high entropy password is a better solution, ideally coupled with a second factor for sensitive data like banking or sites with payment methods attached.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Claymore Avatar
86 months ago
Quick, change the combination on my luggage! Yes got in there first
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
yaxomoxay Avatar
86 months ago
Mandatory video on password security:

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
basical Avatar
86 months ago
Thank god mine didn't make the list.
000000
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)