One of the most fundamental aspects of password hygiene is keeping different passwords for each account that you have because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up preventing a malicious actor from gaining access to all of your accounts after hacking into just one of them. However, even though there is a lot of educational material out there trying to teach people the importance of doing such a thing, 68% of Americans still aren’t following this basic rule.
SecurityOrg conducted a study that revealed this concerning data, and it’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to analyzing the dismal state of password hygiene these days. There’s a lot more that was uncovered as well, all of which seems to indicate that the increase in cybercrime and account hacking that has been seen is partly caused by poor security protocols that have been adopted by the vast majority of users on the internet right now.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that 37% of Americans also commit what is often referred to as the cardinal sin of password hygiene, namely sharing their passwords with others. Your password is a very precious thing, and you should only ever end up sharing it with someone if you absolutely need to. Most of the time giving someone else your password would be something that could potentially cause you a really wide array of problems down the line.
One thing that could be contributing to password sharing is the rise in streaming services with all things having been considered and taken into account. Quite a few users don’t want to get an account on a streaming platform themselves, and this leads to them wanting to use someone else’s password so that they can access their account. When you pair this with the frequency of using the same password across lots of accounts, a major problem starts to become noticeable.
For example, if you gave someone your Netflix password and it is the same one that you used for Facebook, this would essentially result in a situation where that person would now have access to your Facebook account as well. That is obviously not going to be ideal at all, and it should show you why keeping different passwords is so important, as well as why it’s essential for you to keep your password as private as you possibly can.
One positive trend that has been noticed among this data is the prevalence of two factor authentication. With 2FA, even if someone has your password they would not be able to access your account without the code that would be sent to your phone via text message. 85% of people are using 2FA, and what’s more is that the usage of password generators which create impossible to crack, unique passwords has increased from 15% last year to 27% this year. This might give some people hope that some positive change could still be seen in terms of password hygiene, although it’s pretty clear that we still have a long way to go on that front.
Read next: 1 In 4 Of Netizen Are Using Online Biometrics Authentication In Some Capacity
SecurityOrg conducted a study that revealed this concerning data, and it’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to analyzing the dismal state of password hygiene these days. There’s a lot more that was uncovered as well, all of which seems to indicate that the increase in cybercrime and account hacking that has been seen is partly caused by poor security protocols that have been adopted by the vast majority of users on the internet right now.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that 37% of Americans also commit what is often referred to as the cardinal sin of password hygiene, namely sharing their passwords with others. Your password is a very precious thing, and you should only ever end up sharing it with someone if you absolutely need to. Most of the time giving someone else your password would be something that could potentially cause you a really wide array of problems down the line.
One thing that could be contributing to password sharing is the rise in streaming services with all things having been considered and taken into account. Quite a few users don’t want to get an account on a streaming platform themselves, and this leads to them wanting to use someone else’s password so that they can access their account. When you pair this with the frequency of using the same password across lots of accounts, a major problem starts to become noticeable.
For example, if you gave someone your Netflix password and it is the same one that you used for Facebook, this would essentially result in a situation where that person would now have access to your Facebook account as well. That is obviously not going to be ideal at all, and it should show you why keeping different passwords is so important, as well as why it’s essential for you to keep your password as private as you possibly can.
One positive trend that has been noticed among this data is the prevalence of two factor authentication. With 2FA, even if someone has your password they would not be able to access your account without the code that would be sent to your phone via text message. 85% of people are using 2FA, and what’s more is that the usage of password generators which create impossible to crack, unique passwords has increased from 15% last year to 27% this year. This might give some people hope that some positive change could still be seen in terms of password hygiene, although it’s pretty clear that we still have a long way to go on that front.
Read next: 1 In 4 Of Netizen Are Using Online Biometrics Authentication In Some Capacity