Gen Z know the risks but still reuse passwords
A new survey of 2,300 adults worldwide reveals that 79 percent of Gen Z believe reusing the same password across multiple accounts is risky, however, 72 percent still admit to doing so.
The study from Bitwarden ahead of next Thursday's World Password Day also shows 59 percent of Gen Z admit to reusing an existing password when updating an account with a company that has experienced a data breach, this is compared to just 23 percent of Boomers.
Gen Z is often regarded as the most digitally aware generation yet the findings suggest a degree of password fatigue. 72 percent of both Gen Z and Millennial respondents estimate they have fewer than 25 unique passwords, while 38 percent of Gen Z and 31 percent of Millennials report changing only a single character or reusing an existing password when prompted to update a credential. Despite growing up online, 62 percent of Gen Z report some level of stress when it comes to managing passwords.
In addition 30 percent of Gen Z say they often or always forget passwords to important accounts, and 55 percent of all respondents have abandoned logging into an account entirely or created a new one just to avoid the hassle of resetting a password.
Younger generations are more likely to compensate for bad password habits by using multi-factor authentication though. Over 80 percent of Gen Z and Millennials report that they are at least somewhat likely to enable MFA even when it isn't required, compared to just 51 percent of Boomers.
Gen Z is also the most likely generation to use password management software (46 percent). However, insecure sharing habits persist. 25 percent of Gen Z respondents share passwords by including them in the body of a text, while 19 percent send screenshots of their credentials, and 19 percent share them verbally. In contrast, 67 percent of Boomers say they don't share passwords at all, and only seven percent resort to text-based sharing.
You can read more on the Bitwarden site.
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