Online security firm Imperva recently released its analysis of some 32 million online passwords, detailing the most popular among them. The study came about after popular social media portal RockYou.com made available a significant portion of its member’s passwords late last year after a major security breach.

Using this information the firm revealed the twenty most popular password phrases amongst all of the website’s users, offering a “unique glimpse into the way that users select passwords and an opportunity to evaluate the true strength of these as a security mechanism”.

Listed below are the twenty most popular passwords amongst all 32 million members:

This data, says Imperva, suggests that although hacking techniques have advanced considerably online users have not educated themselves further regarding intelligent password choice in the past twenty years.

“In 1990, a study of Unix password security revealed that password selection is strikingly similar to the 32 million breached passwords. Just ten years ago, hacked Hotmail passwords showed little change” added the report.

“Everyone needs to understand what the combination of poor passwords means in today’s world of automated cyber attacks: with only minimal effort, a hacker can gain access to one new account every second, or 1000 accounts every 17 minutes,” explained Imperva’s Chief Technology Officer Amichai Shulman.

Other key findings include

–About 30% of users chose passwords whose length is equal or below six characters.

–Moreover, almost 60% of users chose their passwords from a limited set of alpha-numeric characters.

–Nearly 50% of users used names, slang words, dictionary words or trivial passwords (consecutive digits, adjacent keyboard keys, and so on). The most common password among Rockyou.com account owners is “123456”.

Most common passwords – discussion