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Exposed: here are the 20 most common passwords in Australia

It’s time for a password update if you’re currently using ‘123456’ or ‘qwerty123’

Melissa Woodley
Written by
Melissa Woodley
Travel & News Editor, Time Out Australia
Laptop with code and plant in coffee shop
Photograph: James Harrison via Unsplash
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Passwords exist to keep our personal data safe and secure, but let’s be honest – how many of us actually treat them with the seriousness they deserve? Some of us are lazy – we’re looking at you, ‘0000’ or ‘1234’ passcode users. Then some of us still rely on the classic combo of our childhood pet’s name followed by our birth date. Feeling targeted? Fresh research has revealed the top 20 passwords used in Australia, and this might be your prompt to hit that ‘reset password’ button ASAP.

Surprise, surprise – the most common password in Australia in 2024 was ‘password’. That’s according to data from online password manager NordPass, which reviewed 2.5 terabytes of data extracted from publicly available sources in 44 countries around the world. With 12,449 counts of ‘password’ in the Australian data alone, a hacker could crack into your most confidential information in less than a second. 

Aussies sure get creative on their keyboards, with ‘qwerty123’, ‘123456’, ‘qwerty1’ and ‘123456789’ rounding out the top five digital padlocks. These passwords all ranked among the top six in the entire world too, with ‘123456’ being the most common – and most insecure – password globally last year. 

As in previous years, ‘lizottes’ remained one of Australia’s most popular passwords, securing the number six spot and taking an average of just three hours to crack. We can’t really explain this one, but if you’re one of the 4,000-plus Aussies using it, please email us and tell us what it means.

Other interesting top 20 entrants include ‘pokemon’ at 16th, ‘dragon’ at 18th and ‘charlie’ at 20th. You can check out the full list below and see how our password preferences compare to the rest of the world here.

Here are the 20 most common passwords in Australia:

  1. password
  2. qwerty123
  3. 123456
  4. qwerty1
  5. 123456789
  6. lizottes
  7. qwerty
  8. password1
  9. 12345678
  10. Abcd1234
  11. abc123
  12. Password1
  13. Password
  14. guest
  15. 12345
  16. pokemon
  17. Qwerty123
  18. dragon
  19. 1234567890
  20. charlie

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