More Than 80% Of People Retain One Password For Multiple Sites

84% of people use the same password for multiple sites. The majority of people say they memorise their passwords, followed by writing them down.

Almost a quarter of people reset their passwords multiple times a week, according to Irish cyber security company Sleepless.

Today is World Password Day, a day to help people to think more mindfully about their password management strategies.

Remembering multiple passwords for every device, subscription, App and piece of software is undoubtedly difficult.

• 84% of respondents claim they reuse passwords for multiple sites.
• “My memory” was the most frequent response to “How do manage passwords?”.
• The second most popular response was “pen and paper”, while password manager was third.
• Almost a quarter of respondents reset their passwords every day or multiple times a week.
• 24% of respondents had been affected by a data breach in the past 18 months.

Sleepless have shared its top tips for proper password management and strongly encourage business owners to introduce these measures at work and at home.

Multi-Factor Authentication

Always opt for Multi-Factor Authentication. It uses two separate ways to identify the person logging in. For example, an MFA may be a password plus a push notification to your phone, even better – a physical touch-key.

Complex Passwords 

When using a password, include at least 10 characters, both upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.

Use a Passphrase 

For example, Maytheforcebewithyou but change it up like this: m4Yth3f0rcebw1thu. Inscrutable even under the pressure of Jedi mind tricks!

Use a password manager

Using the same password on multiple devices or platforms is a big no-no! Never share your password with anyone. Using a simple password manager will store them safely for you.

Sleepless Managing Director, Daragh Naughton, predicts that passwords will become obsolete. The future of password management is passwordless.

We are already seeing this for many organisations and Sleepless have a policy that includes ‘passwordless’ as an option. It uses trusted devices for MFA and is convenient for businesses with many endpoints and employees with countless passwords to manage.

Daragh Naughton shares his wisdom.......

“Although we’re taking a lighter look at password management today to celebrate World Password Day and May the Forth, password management is a serious topic and one of the most important security tasks that your business can get under control. Get your Password Management in order and it will remove a headache from your operations. We hope you’ll implement some of these tips in your business today. May the fourth be with you!”