Consider this an infomercial for getting a password manager posthaste. Which is not a shock, since the data in this story was commissioned by SWNS/OnePoll on behalf of LastPass, one of our recommended password managers. Read on for scary stats that underscore why.
If you get a tight feeling in your chest before you enter your password at a website, it’s no wonder. In a poll conducted with 2,005 Americans in January, 65% said they absolutely must write down their passwords to remember them. That same number feel a moment of sheer panic when they realize their computer, phone, or browser did not store the password for them.
Of those polled, 57% said if they lost their smartphone, they’d be locked out of almost everything. And if they forget passwords, they start avoiding the site where they used them rather than try to reset. The upshot, say 63%, is that they’ve been locked out of 10 online accounts per month. That’s staggering. 50% say they do about 5 password resets per month on average, taking 10 minutes to do each time. So they waste a full hour and kill their productivity momentum getting back into websites. And 57% said they immediately forget a new password after the reset.
To solve this dilemma, most of them say they use the same password on at least six different accounts, both work and personal. Even if the passwords are different, 68% keep them similar enough that they can remember something, or at least guess.
Many respondents share their passwords for accounts with other people, whether for their personal email, Amazon-based shopping, or the old standard, streaming services—43% said they pay for up to three streaming services but that they use six on average.
Naturally, people said they’ve fallen for phishing and other scams (about a third of respondents). And 69% said they’d like to be alerted if their password were compromised, like, say, in a data breach.
The vast majority of these password problems could be solved by using a password manager such as LastPass, or our other Editors’ Choices, Keeper and DashLane, and (free on mobile only) Myki. You get the software to track your passwords, even synching them on your desktop and mobile devices, and they recommend and create super-strong passwords no one is going to guess or hack, short of using a supercomputer. Password managers send notifications on breaches and warnings about reusing pass-codes and PINs.
So yes, you still experience anxiety. But software can help do something about it. Security isn’t always simple and easy, and that’s exactly what the bad guys count on.
