‘Password overload’ is leading to some lax security habits, but there’s a growing appetite for better security solutions, according to new findings from Digital Guardian’s Data Insider blog.
According to the company’s recent survey of a thousand randomly selected Google users over the age of 18, 61 percent said they use the same password across multiple accounts. What’s worse, that attitudes of presumably more tech-savvy generations aren’t any better than those of older users: 62 percent of respondents aged 65 or older reported re-using passwords, while that number went as high as 76 percent among millennials aged 18 to 24. No wonder one in five reported having had an online account compromised.
A significant part of the problem seems to be simply the number of online accounts requiring password credentials. Seventy percent of respondents reported using ten or more password-protected online accounts, and 29 percent said they weren’t even sure how many such accounts they use because there are too many to count.
This points to a ripe opportunity for password alternatives to come into play. Biometric authentication, for example, would seem to offer an easy solution for many, and indeed major consumer-facing companies like Samsung envision a future in which biometric authentication plays a central role across a range of digital transactions. Meanwhile, almost half of Data Insider’s respondents – 48 percent – said they use two-factor authentication when it’s available. It seems that while password-based security is still a serious issue, there’s an appetite for stronger security mechanisms that could actually make life easier for most users.
Source: Digital Guardian’s Data Insider
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