If your password is on this list, change it now: ‘Akin to leaving your front door unlocked’

Your password may be easier to hack than you realize.

New data has revealed the most vulnerable and commonly used passwords that can be easily hacked.

According to Forbes, the software company anyIP found that “password” was the most used login credential.

In the US, “password” is the “third most popular password,” according to researchers, but it holds “the top spot” in Australia and the UK.

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Next on the list of most hackable passwords were “qwerty123,” “qwerty1” and “123456,” the latter of which is “especially prevalent due to its ease of recall,” according to the report authors.

For the findings, they used NordPass research results and data that analyzed how often specific passwords were used in hacking attempts.

“Nearly 50% of the most frequently used passwords around the globe this year consist of simple keyboard patterns of letters and numbers,” the anyIP researchers reported.

According to NordPass’ list of 200 worst passwords around the world, “123456” was used over 3 million times.

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“These findings highlight the alarming prevalence of predictable and easily hackable passwords,” anyIP co-founder Khaled Bentoumi told Forbes.

“Hackers are increasingly using sophisticated tools to breach accounts in seconds, and relying on weak passwords is akin to leaving your front door unlocked.”

While anyIP’s list was UK-specific, listing popular places and sports teams in Britain, Forbes reported that swapping the terms for US names would be the same — and just as ineffective at safeguarding accounts.

When filtered to US-specific results, NordPass’ index of easily hacked credentials revealed that “secret” was the top result, used more than 328,000 times. “1234456” and “password” fell to second and third place, while other popular and simple passwords such as “iloveyou,” “baseball,” “monkey” and “sunshine” were among the top 20.

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Earlier this month, cybersecurity experts divulged that longwinded, complicated passphrases are not as secure as users might think.

In an update from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the agency revealed that hard-to-remember passwords with a jumble of letters, symbols and numbers burden users’ memories, and that they should instead focus on length.