People want safer alternatives to passwords and they want them now

As the recent leak of LinkedIn data shows, passwords are an increasingly vulnerable and flawed way of securing systems.

A new survey from identity management specialist Gigya reveals that consumers are beginning to recognize this and that 52 percent would choose anything but a traditional username and password account registration when given the option.

The survey of 4,000 people split between the US and UK finds that 29 percent prefer using two-factor authentication and 20 percent prefer biometric authentication. Biometrics is belived by 80 percent of those expressing a preference to be more secure than traditional methods.

"Within the next 10 years, traditional passwords will be dead as an authentication form," says Patrick Salyer, CEO of Gigya. "Consumer-focused brands require modern customer identity management infrastructures that support newer, more secure authentication methods, such as biometrics. Businesses that are already using advanced authentication methods demonstrate increased customer registration and engagement while enjoying greater login convenience and security".

Among other findings is the continuing use of poor password practice with just 16 percent of respondents having a unique password for each online account. The same password is used for all accounts by six percent, and 63 percent use seven or fewer passwords across all their online accounts.

In the past year, 26 percent have had at least one account compromised. Interestingly millennials are more at risk here with 35 percent reporting having online accounts compromised compared to 28 percent of Generation Xers and 18 percent of baby boomers. It could be of course that millennials have more accounts to begin with.

Millennials, however, exhibit poorer password practice too with only 33 percent creating secure passwords for everything. The rest use passwords like 'password,' '1234,' their names or birthdays. In contrast, 42 percent of Generation Xers and 53 percent of baby boomers say they always create secure passwords.

It seems complex password requirements are off-putting, causing 68 percent to abandon the creation of an online account. While 55 percent abandon a login page because they've forgotten their passwords or answered a security question incorrectly.

You can read more in the entire report which is available on the Gigya website and there's a summary of the findings as an infographic below.

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