90% of Workers Reuse Passwords Despite Security Protocols

Workplace accounts that get compromised by malicious actors can be dangerous because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing these hackers to gain access to a company’s wider system. Reusing old passwords repeatedly can make it easier for accounts to get compromised, but in spite of the fact that this is the case around 90% of workers admitted that they have reused account passwords in the past.

This comes from a report released by Bitwarden that involved a survey of 800 top level IT professionals in the UK as well as the US. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that 84% of the people who responded to this survey said that they use a password manager, but there are quite a few insecure methods that are still being used. 54% of people store their passwords on documents on their systems, and 45% try to remember them by memorizing them which can make their systems far less secure than might have been the case otherwise.

The sharing of passwords is necessary for most companies so that workers can collaborate and use shared accounts, but the means by which these passwords are shared are highly risky. 41% of people apparently send each other account passwords through emails, and 38% use shared online documents that contain the passwords. These modes of password sharing can be easily intercepted by malicious actors, and they can put a company’s sensitive data and IP at risk.

There is good news to glean from this report as well, including that the number of people using multi factor authentication has increased to 92% from 88% last year. Password hygiene is a real problem in workplace culture, with some mistakes including the use of overly simple passwords such as numerical sequences or common phrases. Using the same password across numerous accounts is also a big mistake, as is sharing these passwords with people who don’t need to access the accounts such as friends or members of one’s family.

Read next: What Brand Gets Impersonated the Most During Phishing Attacks? The Answer Might Surprise You
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World