Study Reveals Bad Mobile Password Habits

March 6, 2017

A new study has found that people are just as bad with their mobile passwords as they are with other technology that they own and use.

The Keeper Security study found that 87% of mobile device users between the ages of 18-30 reuse passwords across multiple websites and applications. This bad habit, said Keeper Security, could result in millions of accounts being compromised since hackers typically test a stolen password against multiple accounts including banking, retail, social media, email and healthcare websites.

"People have a tremendous amount of personal and confidential information on their smartphones. It was disturbing to find that almost half of respondents in our survey think their phone is the least secure device that they own, yet 55% of them haven't downloaded a security application," said Darren Guccione, CEO and Co-Founder of Keeper Security. "It is clear that further education regarding the importance of mobile cybersecurity is necessary in order to protect their digital lives."

The survey also said:

Nearly half (46%) of respondents think their phone is the least secure device that they own, yet 41% use their phone for sensitive applications (banking/healthcare).
Age and salary correlate to the level of security on a phone.
- 46% of people aged 45+ do not password-protect their phones with a secure lock screen compared to 26% of those aged 44 and under.
- 34% of respondents making under $75K annually do not password-protect their phone, compared to 25% of those making $75K or more.
46% of people aged 45+ do not password-protect their phones with a secure lock screen compared to 26% of those aged 44 and under.
34% of respondents making under $75K annually do not password-protect their phone, compared to 25% of those making $75K or more.
The vast majority are not worried about social media security yet 75% of users connect their social media profiles to other websites and applications (e.g. login with Facebook).

"An important first step to mobile cybersecurity is for consumers to learn how to create secure passwords and not reuse passwords over multiple logins," added Guccione. "Also, website administrators need to implement password complexity policies to secure users."

https://keepersecurity.com/assets/pdf/Keeper-Mobile-Survey-Infographic.pdf

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