Does your password hack it? Research reveals most common security words in U.S.

In the 2022 edition of NordPass’s annual research of Top 200 most common passwords in the United States, how pop culture influences our password habits is also analyzed.

The no. 1 password in the U.S. is “guest,” and it is also trending worldwide, along with “welcome.” In the United Kingdom, “guest” is the third most common password and the fifth most common in Canada.

More than 4.9 million times makes “password” the most loved password around the world, but it is third among American users. In the U.S., variations such as “Password1” and “password123” are more common.

After analysis of categories such as sports, food, movies and fashion brands, researchers found that culture, lifestyle trends and recent events have a huge effect on American password choice. Extremely popular passwords in the U.S. are often variations of professional sports team names, including Detroit Red Wings and Boston Red Sox.

American Internet users like to keep it simple. NordPass’s research found that, while easily hacked, simple keyboard combinations such as “a1b2c3” and “abc123” are very popular.

According to NordPass, the sample of passwords available for their research this year was smaller than in previous years, and reflects global trends. Passwords are becoming more difficult to hack because more websites use the Open Authorization 2.0 framework. Adoption of multi-factor authentication is increasing.