A study by NordPass, a password management software company, exposes the pervasive use of the notoriously weak password “123456,” held by a staggering 45 million accounts that were surveyed. The second and third most popular passwords, “admin” and “12345678,” were found in approximately 40 million and 13.7 million accounts, respectively. In India, “123456” topped the list, safeguarding around 3.6 million accounts, followed by “admin” in approximately 1.2 million accounts. The study, conducted in collaboration with independent cybersecurity experts, warns that hackers could crack such passwords in less than a second. The research team analyzed a massive 6.6 terabyte-database containing stolen passwords, employing various stealer malware such as Redline, Vidar, Taurus, Raccoon, Azorult, and Cryptbot. The malware logs included both passwords and the source websites, with data spanning 35 countries. The study classified data into verticals, allowing for a statistical analysis based on ...
