Coming up with secure passwords isn’t always easy, especially if you’re looking for things you can actually remember. Although giving yourself something short and sweet may seem like the best choice at the time, it’ll likely come back to haunt you.

If you’re concerned about your online security, choosing the right password should be your first step. Just make sure you don’t base your choice off of 2020’s worst passwords.

NordPass recently put together a list of 2020’s most common passwords, which details how many times a password has been exposed, used, and how much time it would take to crack it.

Did your password make it onto this year’s list? Read below to find out!

Here are the worst passwords of 2020:

1. 123456
2. 123456789
3. picture1 (new this year!)
4. password
5. 12345678
6. 111111
7. 123123
8. 12345
9. 1234567890
10. senha (new this year!)
11. 1234567
12. qwerty
13. abc123
14. Million2
15. 000000
16. 1234
17. iloveyou
18. aaron431 (new this year!)
19. password1
20. qqww1122 (new this year!)

4 Tips for Better Passwords

If you think these passwords are easy to crack, imagine how easy a hacker would think they are! If you want to make sure you’re doing the most to secure your passwords, experts have a few tips to ensure you’re doing all you can do:

1. Diversify the characters in your password – using different combinations of letter, numbers, symbols, uppercase, and lowercase characters is a great way to boost your password strength.

2. A long password goes a long way – most experts agree that keeping your password at a 12 character minimum is best. Are all of your passwords at least 12 characters long?

3. Make sure you’re not using the same password for all your accounts – it’s like using one key for all your locks – once someone has one, they have access to everything. Get creative and brainstorm some different passwords.

4. Use Chrome Sync – Chrome Sync can save your bookmarks, history, passwords, and other settings securely to your Google Account and allow you to access them from Chrome on any device — including the StartMeStick!

What is Chrome Sync?

Google Chrome lets you sync your browsing activity across any device. Things like your bookmarks, history, passwords, and extensions sync from your Google account, creating a seamless experience on any device.

You can choose what information you want Chrome to sync – be it everything, just passwords or somewhere in the middle.

This makes creating strong, unique passwords easy as they’re automatically synced across your devices.

Most of us has an average of 200 passwords to remember. This is a lot of opportunities to forget which password we used. Chrome Sync makes this easy. Here at FixMeStick, we like that we can sync our passwords from our regular computers to our StartMeSticks with just a few clicks.

I’m not tech savvy, will I be able to use Chrome Sync?

Our team uses Chrome Sync and we love it! We trust it for our friends and family and that’s why we are recommending it to you. Plus it works seamlessly with the StartMeStick.

Click the link here to learn how to turn on Google Sync so that it works on your StartMeStick. It really is just a few clicks to turn it on then you’re good to go. If you need any help, don’t hesitate to chat with us on our website, www.FixMeStick.com.

You keep mentioning the StartMeStick, what is it?

The StartMeStick is a fast, private, and secure operating system on a stick. It allows you to keep your computer, save money, and reduce waste. Simply plug it in and breathe new life into your old computers!

Everything you do online you can do with the StartMeStick, e.g. social networks, search, email, video, music, games, business apps, Zoom, etc. And the best part – the StartMeStick is designed to never slow down, break down, or become infected. So it can be used by anybody to win against frustrating computer issues.

Learn more about the StartMeStick here.

Have a question? Leave it in the comments below!