Last.FM Hack Reveals Most-Used Passwords

Unsurprisingly, the top of the list was dominated by some pretty simple passwords.

This is the Samsung Note7.
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Image via Samsung Mobile

This is the Samsung Note7.

Choosing a password is tricky business. You want to pick something that would be hard enough that no one would be able to figure it out, but also easy enough that you can remember it after your computer crashes and you have to re-enter it for the first time in like, three months. We've all been there.

Recently, the music website Last.FM was the victim of a massive hack. While that obviously sucks for them, and for the millions of users who had their private information compromised in the process, there is one sliver of a silver lining. The hack has given us an opportunity to get a look at what the most commonly used passwords people use are.

Now, of course this is just limited to Last.FM users, but it offers a tremendous sample size study into the minds of people as they craft their single security defense against unseen forces getting an inside glimpse into all of their private information. Here are just the Top 20 passwords used.

1. 123456
2. Password
3. lastfm
4.123456789
5. qwerty
6. abc123
7.abcdefg
8. 12345
9. 1234
10. music
11. 12345678
12. 111111
13. abcdefg123
​14. aaaaaa
15. 123123
16. 123
17. liverpool
18. 1234567
19. 0
20. monkey

The second entry on the list isn't much of a surprise. Annual studies have consistently shown that the word "password" itself is generally the most used password in the world. More curious is the inclusion of the beginning of the numerical sequence. 123456 takes the top spot, 1234567 comes in at No. 18, 12345678 checks in at No. 11, and finally 123456789 rounds it out at No. 4.

It should go without saying, but if you happen to recognize one of your own passwords on the list above, you might want to think about changing it up a bit. 

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