The password is no longer password — now it’s a numbers game

The word “password” has lost its top billing as the most common internet password — to be replaced by the far more secure 123456.

One of the world’s leading provider of password management applications, Splashdata, has announced its annual list of the 25 most common passwords on the web — with “password” losing top billing for the first time.

This year’s list was influenced by the large number of passwords from Adobe users posted online by security consulting firm Stricture Consulting Group following a cyberattack on Adobe in October. That hack was originally thought to have targeted 2.9m customers but was revised upwards to 38m.