Passwords are the first line of defense that we have against various kinds of online threats, but the thing to note here is that oftentimes people really don’t see how important it is to come up with unique passwords that no one will be able to crack. The current statistics on passwords make it seem like the state of online security is in a very sorry place indeed, especially when you take into account the fact that nearly a quarter of Americans have used passwords that are incredibly unsafe such as numerical sequences as well as the word “password” itself.
A little over a third of Americans, 37% to be precise have activated two factor authentication. This is a necessary step to take if you want to stay safe online because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up if anyone were to gain access to your password there would be an additional layer of security that would prevent them from logging on to any of your accounts.
Another really dangerous thing that most Americans do is use the same password across numerous different accounts. The reason why this is dangerous has to do with the fact that if someone were to gain one password, they would be able to access all of the accounts that use that password. Hence, the more accounts you have that use the same password, the worse things would end up being for you if you ever have one of these passwords stolen.
66% of Americans use the same password across multiple accounts, and suffice it to say that each and every one of them is in a really precarious situation if you were to take the likelihood of things going awry into account.
There is also a real problem with people when it comes to understanding what types of dangers there are online. Less than a third of Americans don’t know what phishing is, and it’s obvious that if a group of people are somehow unaware of what a specific type of hacking is they would definitely not take any steps to try and protect themselves for it.
Organizations are to blame here as well. 59% of them don’t have any password backups but rather simply rely on people remembering the passwords that they have set. It’s clear that a lot of things need to change before people can start to feel truly safe online, and the first thing that needs to change is how we think of passwords and protect them at all costs. If organizations and individuals fail to act, the state of internet security could become even worse than it is right now.
Take a look at the infographic below for more insights, which comes courtesy of Pandasecurity.
Read next: Your Favorite Apps Collect the Most Personal Data (Here's the Solution)
A little over a third of Americans, 37% to be precise have activated two factor authentication. This is a necessary step to take if you want to stay safe online because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up if anyone were to gain access to your password there would be an additional layer of security that would prevent them from logging on to any of your accounts.
Another really dangerous thing that most Americans do is use the same password across numerous different accounts. The reason why this is dangerous has to do with the fact that if someone were to gain one password, they would be able to access all of the accounts that use that password. Hence, the more accounts you have that use the same password, the worse things would end up being for you if you ever have one of these passwords stolen.
66% of Americans use the same password across multiple accounts, and suffice it to say that each and every one of them is in a really precarious situation if you were to take the likelihood of things going awry into account.
There is also a real problem with people when it comes to understanding what types of dangers there are online. Less than a third of Americans don’t know what phishing is, and it’s obvious that if a group of people are somehow unaware of what a specific type of hacking is they would definitely not take any steps to try and protect themselves for it.
Organizations are to blame here as well. 59% of them don’t have any password backups but rather simply rely on people remembering the passwords that they have set. It’s clear that a lot of things need to change before people can start to feel truly safe online, and the first thing that needs to change is how we think of passwords and protect them at all costs. If organizations and individuals fail to act, the state of internet security could become even worse than it is right now.
Take a look at the infographic below for more insights, which comes courtesy of Pandasecurity.
Read next: Your Favorite Apps Collect the Most Personal Data (Here's the Solution)