A new report shows that 75% of people globally don’t adhere to widely-accepted password best practices with 64% either using weak passwords or repeat variations of passwords to protect their online accounts.

Keeper Security’s latest study, The Keeper Password Management Report: Unifying Perception with Reality, assesses the password habits of more than 8,000 individuals across the US, UK, France and Germany.

More than a third of people also admitted to feeling overwhelmed when it came to taking action to improve their cybersecurity; an indication that these feelings might be putting people at greater risk of being hacked.

According to Verizon’s annual Data Breach Index Report, up to 80% of successful data breaches are the result of compromised login credentials. However, according to Keeper’s study, 57% claim they watch their passwords “like a hawk” or say they’re like a “lion who confidently takes charge.” Of the former, 40% had no idea whether their passwords had been breached. Additionally, 7% of respondents globally recognized password managers as the best way to achieve personal cybersecurity.

Other report highlights

• 30% of people still use simple passwords to protect their digital accounts, while 34% admit to repeating variations of the same password.
• 39% of respondents are unaware of whether they’ve been breached and 32% do not know whether their passwords are available on the dark web.
• 64% of respondents are not confident that they are managing their passwords well.
• 41% of respondents said cybersecurity is too difficult to understand.
• 29% of Baby Boomers use strong and unique passwords for every account, compared to only 20% of Gen Z respondents, of which 40% found cybersecurity overwhelming – the highest of all the age groups.
• Men are more confident than women about password security – 39% of men vs. 31% of women.