Password Psychology
Does our mind decide if our Facebook account will be hacked?
Although most people are aware of the importance of safe password use, many people still ignore the risks. According to an international study by LastPass, which is part of LogMeIn's portfolio, this bad habit is common to users regardless of their age, gender, or personality type. The main reason for concern is that most of the passwords that people think are safe are not at all.
The survey conducted by LastPass, the world's most popular password manager, has been focusing on consumer issues, behavior and attitudes, and personal aspects of personal passwords. The results of a study commissioned by a company developing an identity and access management solutions suggest that people still use the same password in more than one place, despite the massive data leaks affecting large masses in the news, and warned professionals of using strong passwords importance.
Surveying among consumers in the United States, Germany, France, New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom points to the psychological reasons why people make bad password habits despite being aware of the obvious risks and Concludes that our online habits are characterized by a kind of cognitive dissonance.
Our personality determines why we will be hacking victims, but not how
The survey revealed that the type of personality has no impact on online behavioral behaviors, but it shows how consumers are ideologizing their bad habits. One of the most important recognizations of personality types and online behavior was that almost half of respondents in the "A" personality type, due to their proactive efforts, did not think the risk of repeated use of a password would be an increased risk. All this corresponds to the main characteristic of their personality type: they want to be the lords of the situation. Conversely, more than half of people in the "B" personality type feel that they should limit their online activity and number of accounts because they are afraid of signing in. They are persuaded that their account is worthless for hackers so that they can keep their indifferent or just lose attitude about password security. This suggests that although the type of personality does not play a role in the ending, that is, in the bad habits of using the code, it really gives a point on why people behave like this.
The password paradox: you know it's wrong, but you do it
Research has shown that most respondents are aware that their behavior will endanger themselves, but it does not do anything to solve the situation. Only five per cent of respondents did not know what their features were a strong password - most of them knew that passwords should include lower case, uppercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Additionally, 91% of questionnaires knew that the use of a single passphrase in multiple locations involves automatic risk, 61% still use the same or similar password, and more than half (55%) do so, That you are perfectly aware of the risk of the method.
What do people think important when choosing their passwords?
LastPass has come to the conclusion that users can not guess good passwords. According to the survey, 47 percent of users need to use names or monograms with their family when a secure password is to be created. Another 42 percents are important dates or numbers, and 26 percent choose the name of your favorite pet - and this information is easy to get from social networking sites or even superficial friendships.
Additionally, users rank the complexity of their passwords according to which account they want to protect best. Respondents said that the most stringent passwords were chosen for their financial (69 percent), shopping (43 percent), community (31 percent) and entertainment (20 percent) accounts. Although at first glance it is unwise to handle all such accounts with the same importance, Identity Theft Resource Center reported that in 2016, only 21 of the 657 financial institutions were victims of cyber criminals. If you use the same password for different accounts, a cyber criminal who has a less important account can easily access something more important, such as your debit or credit card account.
"Bad password usage patterns are common to users regardless of their age, gender, or personality type," says Joe Siegrist, Vice President and CEO of LastPass. According to a specialist, most users recognize that they are aware of the risks, but they do not break their bad habits, even though they know: it delivers sensitive information easily accessible to potential hackers. To create more effective protection systems, we need to identify the causes of online behavior of individuals and establish a system that will make it easier for the average user to develop safer password habits.
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This article is written by HVG originally.