The Worst Passwords of 2024?

November 15, 2024 Reading time: 17 minutes

NordPass has published their 2024 list of the 200 most commonly-used passwords and, apparently, many people still haven't gotten the memo about password security. Is one of your passwords on this year's list? Well, probably not. NordPass' data comes from a large database of passwords, presumably passwords that have been made public after online service data breaches. A closer look at the data gives some interesting insights into both the psychology behind passwords and websites' adherence to security "best practices." But it also raises some questions about the methodology NordPass used to generate the list. The closer I looked at NordPass' annual list, the more questions I had.

This year, NordPass' crown of dishonor goes to "123456" as the world's most common password in 2024. But is it really? In this article, I'll take a look at NordPass' data, which may not be quite what's on the label, and, just for fun, I'll compare it to some recent password data of my own, collected originally for my recent A Month of Bans article.

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