Common passwords like "123456" and "admin" take less than a second to crack, research shows

Passwords help protect some of our most personal information, but often times they don't actually end up being that personal — making them very easy to circumvent. 

NordPass, a company that helps users generate passwords and keep them secure, has put out its annual list of common passwords, and it shows that many are lacking creativity. 

NordPass partnered with independent researchers who analyzed 4.3 terabytes of data taken from publicly available sources; the company said no personal data was taken during the process. Analyzing data from 35 countries and eight different types of platforms, the company found the most common passwords are often strings of numbers.