NordPass’s annual analysis of personal and corporate passwords in 44 countries has revealed that people in Germany, along with just about everyone else, desperately need to get more creative with their passwords.

Most common password in Germany is 123456

An analysis done by the password management system NordPass has found that the dangerously simple “123456” is the most common password in Germany today. The company estimates that it would take hackers less than one second to crack the common code.

The rest of the findings were similarly predictable and insecure. Slightly more patient users created the second-most popular password “123456789”, followed by “12345678” in third place and “1234567” in fourth.

Only with the fifth-most popular password do people opt for the cryptic word “password” and in sixth place, it's back to the numbers, but with a twist, “1234567890”. “123123”, “111111”, “abc123” and “000000” rounded out the top 10 most common codes, all of which would take hackers less than one second to crack.

Users got more imaginative after the top 10, but “dragon”, “iloveyou”, “password1” and “monkey” are all still considered weak by NordPass and take less than one second to crack.

United by uselessness, “123456”, “123456789” and “12345678” were named as the top three most common passwords across the 44 countries included in the analysis.

What makes a password secure?

“After analysing six years' worth of data, we can say there hasn't been much improvement in people's password habits,” NordPass wrote in its study. Not only that, but things are getting worse. The international company put this down to people having too many passwords to remember, estimating that on average a single person has 168 personal logins and 87 logins for work.

So if you're looking to learn, what makes a secure password? According to the company, “a password should be at least 20 characters long and include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special symbols”.

“Steer clear of easily guessable information like birthdays, names, or common words,” they explained, review your passwords and never reuse them across multiple sites and services.

Thumb image credit: Giulio_Fornasar / Shutterstock.com