Exclusive: People "don't see the point" in password managers
Most users store their passwords elsewhere
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Even though easy-to-guess passwords are one of the weakest links in the cybersecurity chain, most people still “don’t see the point” in a password manager, and are happy to save their details elsewhere, a new, exclusive report from OnePulse shared with TechRadar Pro has found.
Gauging the opinions of 1,000 individuals on their password practices, the company found that more than a quarter (27%) don’t see the point in using a password manager. What’s more, another quarter (26%) would rather save their passwords elsewhere, meaning that roughly half of the respondents don’t use a password manager - at all.
Of those that do, roughly a fifth (20%) have downloaded a free password manager, or one that came bundled with other commercial software, while the remaining 27% decided to let their browser save and manage their passwords.
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Free version takes the crown
Of the 1,000 poll respondents, half (49%) have fewer than 100 passwords to manage, while 14% handle between 100 and 500. A significant portion (30%) did not want to give any specific numbers, but 6% said they needed to maintain as many as 500.
When it comes to paying for password management software, the respondents seem to be relatively tight-fisted. Most (47%) didn’t want to say how much they spent, but two in five (39%) decided to go for the free version. Roughly 4% each went to those paying around $2, those paying up to $6, and those paying more than $6.
There is consensus among cybersecurity experts that password managers are one of the essential tools of online security, right next to two-factor authentication (2FA) solutions, or biometrics.
These tools are capable of generating strong passwords easily, notifying users when it’s time to change them, and storing them in a secure environment. Most of them are also cross-platform, allowing users access on different devices including PCs, mobile phones, and tablets.
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Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.