- NordPass reveals that ‘admin’ and ‘password’ are the top US passwords in 2025
- Poor password habits persist across all generations, despite myths about older users
- Use of special characters is on the rise, but most passwords remain easily guessable
2025 is almost over, but it seems many of us haven’t yet learned how to create a proper password.
NordPass, the leading password management company, has released the seventh edition of its annual search for 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 password is “password”. This means that in many cases, cybercriminals who launch automated brute force or credential stuffing attacks will successfully break in and access people’s sensitive information.
123456…
The general view has always been that older generations, who are also less tech-savvy, are the ones with poor password hygiene and whose accounts are easiest to compromise.
NordPass debunked this myth, saying password quality is “equally bad” across all generational groups. The only difference is that the groups have different common passwords.
For each age group, “12345” and “123456” still lead, but older generations are more likely to use names in their passwords. On the other hand, generations Y and Z most 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 master list now include special characters, which is a “notable increase” from last year’s six. However, we still have a lot of work to do, as most passwords are not yet complex enough and include passwords like “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 good cyber hygiene. The best passwords are a long string of random letters (lower and upper case), numbers, and special characters. To remember them all, it’s best to use a password manager that stores them securely and requires users to remember only one password.
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