Partner Article

Stressed UK workers compromising IT security

Siber Systems, Inc., maker of RoboForm, the world’s most popular password manager, today announced the results of a poll it commissioned via uSamp to assess password practices in the US and UK. The survey, which polled 1,000 workers on their password management practices, found that people are struggling with the vast amount of information they have to remember on a daily basis – and their company’s IT security could be suffering as a result.

Even with heightened awareness about hacking due to reports of major breaches in the headlines, the survey reveals that most people are still falling foul of poor password management practices. And with 52 per cent of people reportedly stressed about the number of things they have to remember at work on a daily basis, it is little wonder that many forget their passwords, both wasting valuable time and costing their employers money. Well over half of survey participants (60 per cent) reported that they had either forgotten a password or had a password compromised at some point during their professional career, with one in ten people losing 30 minutes or more per incident. People in the US (70 per cent) were somewhat more likely than their UK counterparts (57 per cent) to have forgotten a password or had it exposed to risks on the job – and younger people were found to be more forgetful than their older colleagues.

Only a fraction of survey respondents reported that they use the type of strong password management practices industry experts recommend: passwords that contain upper and lowercase letters as well as numbers and symbols, use of unique passwords for each registered website and changing passwords every 30-60 days. Just over a third (37 per cent) of survey participants said they use passwords that contain both letters and numbers. And only 8 per cent reported using a password management system, which can automatically create strong passwords for every site and change them frequently.

Some of the inadequate password management practices highlighted by the survey include:

• Almost three quarters – 73 per cent – of respondents allow their browser to remember passwords for them at least some of the time
• Three quarters of people (76 per cent) occasionally neglect to log out of websites when they have finished browsing
• Almost half (42 per cent) of survey participants say they write passwords down to keep track of them
• Many respondents use the same password for multiple sites: 74 per cent report that they log into six or more sites every day, yet only 59 per cent of participants say they use five or fewer passwords, meaning that many use the same password on multiple sites.

Commenting on the survey findings Bill Carey, VP of marketing at Siber Systems says, “The results of our survey are worrying to say the least. People are clearly stressed out by the vast number of things they have to remember on a daily basis, and amidst all the brain clutter there is little room or scope to remember passwords. This is exposing them, their personal data and, at the same time, the companies they work for to serious risk.

“Siber Systems recommends that people use a unique password for each website or application they log on to. But when you consider that almost a third of people we surveyed log in to 11 or more on a daily basis, that’s a lot of passwords to remember! Luckily technology can help ease the strain by automatically creating secure passwords and changing them frequently – with only one master password to remember.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Siber Systems .