Security News > 2020 > December > Most used passwords for 2020: The internet's favorite curse word, name, food, and team
New research from CyberNews.com analyzed 15.2 billion passwords based on term categories, with only 2.2 billion being considered "Unique." People, the data showed, choose passwords based, obviously, on what they think they can remember, but can be deciphered by hackers based on the creator, patterns, and personality.
About 7% of passwords were either curse words or sex-related.
Another set of passwords commonly used featured some variation of the city in which the creator lived, citing an appreciation or dislike, such as "Ihatephiladelphia2020!" The No. 1 city, the data found was abu, followed by rome, lima, hong, milan, london, liverpool, austin, antonio, and york.
So the most frequently chosen passwords are based on years, names, curses, cities and food, but passwords are also considered "Weak" if the creator doesn't include numbers or "Special characters."
The data concludes that "The best passwords are the ones you don't remember at all." CyberNews recommends strong passwords, using password managers, and strong phrases using mnemonic devices, words with little relation to each other.