Sharing passwords is a bad idea, yet people still do it

A lot of people like sharing their passwords with others, even though such actions put their data at risk -- and they know it. Those are the results of a new survey commissioned by password management firm LastPass, and conducted by RedShift Research.

According to the survey, more than half (55 percent) of UK’s consumers share passwords with others, jeopardizing their financial information in the process. They know that’s risky -- three quarters (75 percent) have confirmed it -- but still, 96 percent have admitted sharing up to six passwords with others.

The most common person to share a password with is a partner for 66 percent of those surveyed. After sharing a password, 63 percent fail to change it. The survey also says they are usually shared verbally, as well as that business passwords are shared more freely than their private counterparts. The survey included 2,000 adults from the UK.

Passwords have been in the center of IT security attention for quite some time now, as many experts believe they’re the weakest link in the security chains. Besides people sharing them, they’re usually not creative, making them easy for cyber-crooks to break. Also, people often use the same password for multiple services, putting even more data at risk, and change their passwords rarely.

IT security experts have been looking for a solution to this problem, with various password managers and replacement methods including images, but also biometrics. Recently, a security company called BioCatch patented a new authentication method which monitors, among other things, how hard you’re pressing your keyboard.

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