95 percent of US consumers share their passwords

It seems that convenience trumps security when it comes to passwords. Although 73 percent of US consumers believe sharing login details is risky, 95 percent do share between one and six of their passwords with other people.

A new survey by LastPass also reveals that only 19 percent of respondents say they don't share passwords that would jeopardize their identity or financial information, leaving a scary 81 percent of people who would share them.

The study explored the password sharing habits of more than 1,000 US consumers of 18 or older. Among the key findings were that 59 percent use the same password on multiple sites, which means people are potentially exposing more online accounts than they realize through password sharing.

"Nearly all aspects of our lives have some online component and when you bring password sharing into the mix, all of that sensitive information is instantly compromised," says Joe Siegrist, VP and GM of LastPass. "We realize that at times, people and teams need access to the same accounts, so we created a new LastPass Sharing Center in our 4.0 version, allowing users to easily and securely share their passwords, giving them the peace of mind knowing their passwords are protected".

Other findings include that only 27 percent of respondents reset a password after sharing it with others. Younger generations are more trusting too, those aged 18-29 are the most likely to share passwords with friends. In fact, 40 percent said they’d shared a password with a friend as opposed to 15 percent of those aged 30-44, only 6 percent aged 45-59 and 8 percent aged 60+.

Password sharing isn't limited to personal accounts either. One in four respondents admit to sharing business passwords, classified as any password associated with their workplace. Additionally, 61 percent of respondents say they are more likely to share their work passwords than personal passwords.

You can find more details of the survey's findings in the infographic below.

Photo credit: shutteratakan / Shutterstock