Just a quarter of employees save their passwords, either in a notebook, their smartphone or a password management app, according to data from KnowBe4.
This means that most people are guilty of using the same password across multiple services, the company claims, making them easy prey for hackers.
All online accounts, especially banking services, require a strong password to protect against brute force attacks. That usually means a combination of letters (both uppercase and lowercase), numbers and symbols.
The complexity of secure passwords means they are difficult to remember, leading many to lean on either one or a handful of passwords for all of their accounts.
Employees working for companies in the banking, consulting and technology sectors are said to be the worst offenders.
To remedy that problem, KnowBe4 offers three points of advice:
- Create unique, slightly longer passwords. They don’t have to be single words, and could be simple sentences, or a random sequence of digits, letters and special characters
- Write the password down somewhere
- Use a password manager
The problem with using a single password across multiple services is simple: if one of the services is breached and the password makes its way onto the black market, all of your accounts could be easily compromised.
