Bad Passwords:
Good for Criminals
Topical or pop culture-influenced passwords are far too easy to guess or crack – a field day for cybercriminals looking for easy entry points to perpetrate account takeover, online fraud and even ransomware.
Every year, SpyCloud researchers analyze our billions of recaptured data assets looking for the most frequently reused passwords across third-party data breaches and malware victim logs as a key component of our Annual Identity Exposure Report. But we thought a more frequent look at popular password keywords was warranted. Here’s a look at topical passwords and themes that are prevalent in our database of darknet data.
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Top 5 Topical Passwords You Should Retire Immediately
| Password Basewords | Total Count - Last 12 months | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | formula 1 / f1 / racing | 6,399,806 |
| 2 | zelda / link / nintendo / ganondorf | 1,603,495 |
| 3 | easter / easter sunday / lent / bunny / easter 2024 | 1,302,269 |
| 4 | shakira / shak / cardi b / punteria | 567,957 |
| 5 | ghostbusters / egon / venkman / frozen empire | 128,332 |
Last updated: April 2, 2024
Read our article Tips for Strong Passwords to learn how to avoid these easy password creation pitfalls and build better defense for your accounts and systems.
Top Pop Culture Inspired Compromised Passwords by Theme
Take a look at the latest stats for music, TV, politics and other themed passwords in our recaptured data. We share both the total counts in our entire data collection as well as a look at what we’ve recaptured from infostealer logs.
- Music / Celebrity
| Password Basewords | Total Count in Our Database - All Time | Total Count - Last 12 Months | Malware-Exfiltrated - All Time | Malware-Exfiltrated - Last 12 Months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| taylor / swift / tswift / swiftie / midnights | 7,223,774 | 611,675 | 164,613 | 48,046 |
| shakira / shak / cardi b / punteria | 6,048,410 | 567,957 | 415,925 | 147,846 |
| beyonce / cowboy carter / texas hold em / queen bey | 584,927 | 45,383 | 9,636 | 3,096 |
| sydney sweeney / immaculate / scream / horror | 1,245,742 | 90,302 | 42,305 | 13,516 |
- Politics / Global
| Password Basewords | Total Count in Our Database - All Time | Total Count - Last 12 Months | Malware-Exfiltrated - All Time | Malware-Exfiltrated - Last 12 Months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| trump / donald trump / president trump | 824,475 | 76,842 | 37,934 | 10,515 |
| biden / president biden / joe biden | 71,702 | 7,272 | 5,944 | 2,573 |
| democrat | 53,356 | 3,490 | 1,799 | 401 |
| republican | 26,288 | 1,801 | 742 | 200 |
| 2024 election / election / uselection | 86,473 | 7,615 | 7,988 | 1,791 |
- Gaming
| Password Basewords | Total Count in Our Database - All Time | Total Count - Last 12 Months | Malware-Exfiltrated - All Time | Malware-Exfiltrated - Last 12 Months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| prince of persia / lost crown / sargon / immortals | 90,896 | 9,167 | 7,153 | 2,170 |
| final fantasy / rebirth / planet / cloud strife / playstation | 2,779,570 | 265,661 | 208,465 | 66,470 |
| mario / super mario / mario bros / donkey kong | 8,350,159 | 1,004,816 | 722,796 | 260,390 |
| zelda / link / nintendo / ganondorf | 20,760,821 | 1,603,495 | 856,761 | 286,194 |
- TV / MOVIES
| Password Basewords | Total Count in Our Database - All Time | Total Count - Last 12 Months | Malware-Exfiltrated - All Time | Malware-Exfiltrated - Last 12 Months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| the bachelor / bachelor / bachelornation / proposal | 102,372 | 7,448 | 3,802 | 1,255 |
| ghostbusters / egon / venkman / frozen empire | 1,363,770 | 128,332 | 77,236 | 28,514 |
| dune / dune movie / paul atreides / chani / fremen | 1,727,422 | 151,553 | 103,635 | 34,031 |
- Sports
| Password Basewords | Total Count in Our Database - All Time | Total Count - Last 12 Months | Malware-Exfiltrated - All Time | Malware-Exfiltrated - Last 12 Months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ncaa / marchmadness / basketball | 3,231,966 | 274,702 | 60,946 | 18,192 |
| formula 1 / f1 / racing | 85,219,717 | 6,399,806 | 4,288,058 | 1,534,934 |
| caitlin clark / hawkeyes / iowa hawkeyes / NCAA | 253,671 | 21,575 | 9,934 | 3,497 |
| mlb / theshow / mlbtheshow24 / baseball / shohei ohtani | 8,548,438 | 653,401 | 101,151 | 30,838 |
- Tech / Other
| Password Basewords | Total Count in Our Database - All Time | Total Count - Last 12 Months | Malware-Exfiltrated - All Time | Malware-Exfiltrated - Last 12 Months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tiktok | 101,635 | 40,118 | 33,434 | 16,755 |
| insta / instagram | 922,094 | 219,639 | 237,769 | 90,130 |
| 2,724,498 | 388,249 | 330,296 | 118,974 | |
| xbox | 2,904,590 | 322,234 | 213,536 | 75,244 |
| twitter / elon | 7,986,979 | 832,717 | 609,000 | 216,171 |
| spotify | 156,107 | 79,514 | 96,470 | 36,781 |
| 47,361 | 14,308 | 17,871 | 4,994 |
- Holidays / Events
| Password Basewords | Total Count in Our Database - All Time | Total Count - Last 12 Months | Malware-Exfiltrated - All Time | Malware-Exfiltrated - Last 12 Months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| easter / easter sunday / lent / bunny / easter 2024 | 14,092,476 | 1,302,269 | 773,758 | 277,703 |
| spring break / schools out / school | 5,532,903 | 481,787 | 248,959 | 86,543 |
| daylight savings / spring / flowers / flower | 11,533,154 | 859,576 | 244,040 | 73,145 |
| eclipse / solar eclipse / total eclipse | 1,156,383 | 87,172 | 36,480 | 12,101 |
- Food
| Password Basewords | Total Count in Our Database - All Time | Total Count - Last 12 Months | Malware-Exfiltrated - All Time | Malware-Exfiltrated - Last 12 Months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pizza / pizzalover / cheese | 8,828,067 | 786,303 | 306,767 | 98,452 |
| sweet tooth / cookies / candy / cake / pie | 39,437,401 | 3,491,623 | 1,539,007 | 520,818 |
| vegan / veggies / carrot / broccoli / pepper | 6,697,226 | 532,991 | 131,327 | 40,274 |
| apple / banana / orange / strawberry / fruit | 27,087,358 | 2,532,443 | 1,216,236 | 412,523 |
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