A study done by LastPass ? a proprietary freemium password management service ? examines people’s behavior in relation to their passwords. LastPass teamed up with market research firm Lab42 to conduct a survey on the password practices of 2,000 adults worldwide. Their findings confirmed that so many people don’t have good password habits. Despite stories about data breaches and other security risks, many of us still don’t change our passwords.
LastPass noted: “The data collected through this survey suggests that the theory of cognitive dissonance also applies to a user?s digital behavior: you know it’s bad for you, but you continue to do it anyway.” Cognitive dissonance is defined by Encyclopedia Britannica as “the mental conflict that occurs when beliefs or assumptions are contradicted by new information.”
Based on the findings of the study, LastPass identified two Password Personalities. They basically share the same bad password habits but they justify it in different ways. Take a look at the chart below and figure out what your Password Personality is.
The survey’s other notable findings have highlighted a few other perplexing facts. Here are some of them:
- Among the survey respondents, 91% know there is a risk when reusing passwords. However, but 61% continue to do so.
- Only 29% change their passwords for security reasons. The No. 1 reason people change their passwords is because they forgot it.
- Understandably, people prioritize their financial accounts (69%) over retail (43%) social media (31%), and entertainment (20%) accounts.
Then again, the survey pointed out that their “poor password behavior also seems to flow into the workplace,” as 39% of respondents said they create more secure passwords for personal accounts over work accounts.
LastPass made it clear that people should really develop better password habits. They should not wait for data breaches or security issues to affect them before they wise up and secure their digital accounts.
