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This football club is most often used as a password!
Security Awareness

This football club is most often used as a password!

Football clubs are often used as passwords. How often exactly? We took a closer look at this! You can register quickly on platforms, websites or in apps - if it...

Chris Wojzechowski Chris Wojzechowski Geschäftsführender Gesellschafter
Updated: October 2, 2024 2 Min. read
IT-Grundschutz-Praktiker (TÜV) IT Risk Manager (DGI) § 8a BSIG Prüfverfahrenskompetenz Ausbilderprüfung (IHK)
Table of Contents (2 sections)

Football clubs are often used as passwords. How often exactly? We took a closer look at this! You can register quickly on platforms, websites or in apps - if it weren’t for the annoying password. But how do you remember all the passwords? Obviously, many people use their football clubs to assign passwords. These are, at least in part, surprisingly often used as passwords. How often exactly? You can find that out from our count!

“schalke04” is the football club that is most often used as a password!

The difference between first and last place is extensive. Between the Gelsenkirchen-based Schalke04 football club (1st place) and the Nuremberg club (18th place) there are about 50,000 uses. Where does your soccer club appear? Look in this list, look for your favorite club. [table id=4 /] How do you get these numbers? Different reasons speak for - or against - the use of different passwords. We try to explain why “schalke04” is number 1: The standard requirements for the allocation of passwords are meanwhile:

  • At least 6 characters
  • Letter
  • numbers

Depending on the platform, website or app, these requirements may be stricter and more relaxed. However, the “Schalke04” meets most requirements. In contrast to Schalke04, “BVB09” is simply too short for many forms. Maybe fans of BVB09 will switch over to the Gelsenkirchen fans and use “schalke04” as their password? Hardcore fans wouldn’t think of that either. Could also be a security feature.

Select a football club as password? A bad idea!

At the end of all speculation it must still be mentioned that no matter which password one chooses, it should have no personal reference. This also includes the football club, hobbies, names of friends or family members. Prefabricated password lists are available in many variations. Creating a personalized password list from the football clubs of the world is not a big challenge. If this information is already suitable for guessing your own password, you should have made a little more effort when assigning it.

For determining the numbers

For our research, we used Troy Hunt’s 5.5 billion stolen records. Further information regarding the numbers is available on request: kontakt@a7.de

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About the author

About the Author

Chris Wojzechowski
Chris Wojzechowski

Geschäftsführender Gesellschafter

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Geschäftsführender Gesellschafter der AWARE7 GmbH mit langjähriger Expertise in Informationssicherheit, Penetrationstesting und IT-Risikomanagement. Absolvent des Masterstudiengangs Internet-Sicherheit an der Westfälischen Hochschule (if(is), Prof. Norbert Pohlmann). Bestseller-Autor im Wiley-VCH Verlag und Lehrbeauftragter der ASW-Akademie. Einschätzungen zu Cybersecurity und digitaler Souveränität erschienen u.a. in Welt am Sonntag, WDR, Deutschlandfunk und Handelsblatt.

10 Publikationen
  • Einsatz von elektronischer Verschlüsselung - Hemmnisse für die Wirtschaft (2018)
  • Kompass IT-Verschlüsselung - Orientierungshilfen für KMU (2018)
  • IT Security Day 2025 - Live Hacking: KI in der Cybersicherheit (2025)
  • Live Hacking - Credential Stuffing: Finanzrisiken jenseits Ransomware (2025)
  • Keynote: Live Hacking Show - Ein Blick in die Welt der Cyberkriminalität (2025)
  • Analyse von Angriffsflächen bei Shared-Hosting-Anbietern (2024)
  • Gänsehaut garantiert: Die schaurigsten Funde aus dem Leben eines Pentesters (2022)
  • IT Security Zertifizierungen — CISSP, T.I.S.P. & Co (Live-Webinar) (2023)
  • Sicherheitsforum Online-Banking — Live Hacking (2021)
  • Nipster im Netz und das Ende der Kreidezeit (2017)
IT-Grundschutz-Praktiker (TÜV) IT Risk Manager (DGI) § 8a BSIG Prüfverfahrenskompetenz Ausbilderprüfung (IHK)
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