INDIANAPOLIS – A new report by cyber security company SpyCloud reveals Americans have an ongoing problem with passwords.
Namely, too many people reuse passwords that are easy to crack, putting sensitive information at risk.
For one thing, the report found the most common passwords on the internet in 2024 were “123456,” “111111,” “ADMIN,” and “QWERTY,” the top six letters on the left side of the keyboard. The report also found more than 140 million people had a password exposed in 2024.
Making matters worse, SpyCloud found 70% of people reuse the same passwords across multiple accounts. That’s up from 61% in 2023. Repeated passwords are one of the biggest threats to online security. If an individual’s credentials are part of a data breach, it won’t take long for hackers to go after other accounts with the same password.
Experts say it’s crucial to have a unique password for every online account you have. Make sure it’s a mix of 12 to 16 letters, numbers and special characters. Users should not put personal information like a birthday or hometown in their password. Many of those bits of information are publicly accessible through social media and other means.
Cyber security watchdog recommend using a password manager that can generate and securely save all your passwords. Apple, Google and Microsoft have built-in password managers that make it easy to come up with new passwords and save them.
Users can also use third-party password managers for their accounts. Tech Radar recently reviewed the best password manager systems for 2025.
