s Are (Almost) Universally Garbage

The data is in, and it looks like we should all be thoroughly ashamed of ourselves. Recently, manager Nord released a list of  2020's most popular s, and even with a global pandemic forcing the majority of our work, social lives, and hell, even human interactions to occur online, it seems most of us could not be bothered to adopt less-than-terrible s. Coming in at the top spot? "123456," a that is both used by 2,543,285 people online and takes less than one second to crack, according to the site. The runner up? The incredibly-creative variation of its predecessor, "123456789" followed by "Picture1," and of course, the quintessential bad , "" itself. The rest of the top 25 are not too great either:

1. 123456

2. 123456789

3. Picture1

4.

5. 12345678

6. 111111

7. 123123

8. 12345

9. 1234567890

10. senha

11. 1234567

12. qwerty

13. abc123

14. Million2

15. 000000

16. 1234

17. iloveyou

18. aaron431

19. 1

20. qqww1122

21. 123

22. omgpop

23. 123321

24. 654321

25. qwertyuiop

1111111 and 000000? Who do we think we are, Kanye West circa his 2018 breakdown? Iloveyou? Try I loathe you, bad . Omgpop? More like OMG, stop. Come on, people, we're better than this. 

Now, I know what some of you are thinking -- "'123456'? '?' Carly, I know how basic internet protection works. There's no way MY could be as bad as ANY of those. Well, Hackerman, I have some bad news. Pop culture like "naruto" and "Pokemon" also made the list.

"Last year, the 'onedirection' came 184th on the list. This year, it didn't make it at all," Nord spokesperson, Patricia Cerniauskaite, explained to Motherboard. "This could be because the group has lost its popularity, as they are pursuing solo careers, or it could also be that their fans are becoming more cyber-conscious. However, 'pokemon' has become a much more popular , as well as 'blink182' -- we could speculate that their popularity is rising." 

Sorry, Harry Styles! However, it might be best to steer clear of these types of s altogether, according to Morgan Slain, CEO of SplashData. "Additionally, Slain points out that attackers are quick to use common pop culture to break into s online, in case you thought you were the only Star Wars fan," Vice's tech vertical reported back in 2017.

So how exactly can one effectively secure their s, according to Nord? Avoid using adjacent keyboard combinations, repeating characters, and anything relating to personal information, like names and birthdays. Use different s for different s and make them as long as possible -- 12 characters minimum, if possible, and swap them every 90 days. Vice also suggests using multi-factor authentication and a healthy mix of caps and unique characters. 

In short, your current is probably bad, and you should feel bad. Now change your s to something even Mr. Robot himself would struggle to crack. You can do this. 

For more internet nonsense, follow Carly on Instagram @HuntressThompson_ and on Twitter @TennesAnyone.