- NordPass finds that “admin” and “password” will be the top US passwords in 2025
- Weak password habits persist across generations, despite myths about older users
- The use of special characters is increasing, but most passwords are still easy to guess
The year 2025 is almost over, but it seems that many of us still haven’t learned how to create a proper password.
Leading password management company NordPass has released its seventh edition of its annual investigation of the 200 most common passwords, and the results are embarrassing, to say the least.
Surprisingly or not, the number one password in the United States is “admin.” The second classified is “password”. This means that in many cases, cybercriminals running automated brute force or credential stuffing attacks will be able to break in and access people’s sensitive information.
123456…
It has always been the common opinion that older generations, who are also less tech-savvy, are the ones with poor password hygiene and whose accounts are the easiest to compromise.
NordPass has debunked this myth, saying that password quality is “equally poor” across all generational groups. The only difference is that the groups have different common passwords.
For each age group, “12345” and “123456” are always at the top, but older generations are more likely to use names in their passwords. On the other hand, Generations Y and Z often combine “12345678” and “skibidi”.
In the United States, the top 20 list is dominated by simple number sequences and weak passwords like “qwerty123” or the simple “1234567890.”
But things are improving, NordPass claims, compared to 2024, there has been a “significant increase” in the use of special characters.
In fact, 32 passwords on the top list now include special characters, which is a “notable increase” from six last year. However, we still have a lot of work to do, as most passwords are still not complex enough and include “P@ssw0rd”, “Admin@123” or “Abcd@1234”, all of which are relatively easy to guess.
Using a strong password is one of the key pillars of proper cyber hygiene. The best passwords are a long string of random letters (lowercase and uppercase), numbers, and special characters. To remember them all, it is best to use a password manager that stores passwords securely and requires users to only remember one password.
The best antivirus for all budgets
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
