In this paper, we perform a large-scale analysis of Wi-Fi passwords categorizing them as public Wi-Fi passwords created for Wi-Fi hotspots and private Wi-Fi passwords created for private/home Wi-Fi installations. While there is a wealth of research investigating online password choices, to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies specifically designed to capture user behavior towards Wi-Fi passwords. A detailed analysis of such data can provide insight on password trends and patterns users follow when they create a password. Thus, passwords have been the prime targets of attackers, and the number of data breaches in the last few years proves the high value of passwords. Passwords remain the most common method of authentication in computers and networks. For the first time, a realistic view on password reuse can be given. We are confident that the analysis of such a large amount of real-life credentials is novel to existing studies on passwords, which were limited to thousands or a few million credentials, at most. We especially focus on the often mentioned, but rarely researched, issue of password reuse and reveal the regional differences in password selection. In this paper, we introduce multiple comprehensive statistics on the use of passwords based on the gathered data. Apart from our security awareness service, the large amount of real world credentials allows to create comprehensive and realistic password statistics. As part of our warning service for victims of these breaches, we have gathered and normalized most of the publicly available breaches and could assess nearly one billion credentials. Undoubtedly, these breaches constitute a major threat because victims might fall to identity theft. Just recently, hundreds of millions of identities were leaked from services like LinkedIn, MySpace and VKontakte. Nowadays, identity breaches are happening almost on a daily basis.
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