“Hello” is a popular choice everywhere (in the local language). These poor password choices persist in other non-English speaking countries. Consequently, though Chinese passwords using number sequences are more hackable than many top passwords from English-speaking countries, passphrases created by Chinese users prove more resistant to hacking than most passwords created by English speakers. As a result, the time required to crack passwords also increases. However, when passwords use a combination of letters and numbers, the number of possible configurations increases significantly. When used on their own, passwords made from just numbers are easier to guess due to fewer possible combinations of the ten digits 0-9. Phone numbers and birth dates also appear to be more frequently used in passwords created by Chinese Internet users. Simple number sequences like “111111,” “123123,” and “5201314” (which resembles a phrase in Mandarin Chinese) are top choices. In China, numbers are used in passwords more often than in English-speaking countries. Poor password choices aren’t unique to English-speaking countries, but the popular passwords in non-English speaking countries vary based on country-specific phrases, pop culture, and regional dialects. Non-English speaking countries use guessable passwords, too Still, those password choices have a damaging effect on their overall cybersecurity. Of course, given the number of passwords people have to remember and the frequency with which they need to enter them every day, it’s unsurprising people use these words repeatedly. In other words, when English speakers are choosing passwords, they turn to the words that are easy to type, easy to remember or describe some aspect of their daily life. Superheroes, sports teams, cities, countries, and pet names are also frequently used as passwords.

Names – both given names and those of famous fictional characters – are another top pick. New studies show that common keyboard patterns like “1234,” “qwerty,” and “asdf” are still popular password choices among English speakers. Millions of people are still using the most hackable passwords in the US, the UK, Australia, and other countries where English is the predominant language. Most hacked passwords are common across English-speaking countries

So if you want to make your passwords hard to guess and harder to crack, you’ll need to avoid the most hacked passwords and create a strategy for better password security. Though the most-used passwords may differ from country to country, Internet users worldwide are notorious for poor password choices. Think your passwords are hacker-proof? We all know passwords matter when it comes to online security, but in reality, 65% of us still use the same or similar passwords everywhere.

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