Kaspersky has uncovered a significant rise in the use of malware designed to harvest consumers’ digital data, known as password stealers.

New research reveals that enterprise users and security professionals alike are frustrated by the inefficiency and lax security of passwords for user authentication.

More than 90 percent  of companies in both the US and UK feel their current password protection measures and guidelines provide adequate protection for their business. 

Fifty-six percent of consumers in North America and Europe are concerned about the switch to biometrics, and 81 prefer passwords for online payments due to security concerns, according to the report “Lost in Transaction: The end of Risk?”. 

More than half of consumers (56 percent) are worried that the shift to biometrics to authenticate online payments will dramatically increase the amount of identity fraud.

Canva is urging their users to change their passwords following a data breach last week that affected more than 139 million users. 

Mississippi, Louisiana, California, Alaska, and Connecticut are the riskiest states in the U.S.A. based on consumer preparedness for cyber-attacks.

More than 64 percent of people use the same password for some, or even all, of their online accounts, while only 21 percent use a different password for each account, according to a news report in the UK.

Forty-two percent of British consumers expect to lose money to online fraud, according to the National Cyber Security Centre's new UK Cyber Survey analysis. 

The National Cyber Security Centre released a list of 100,000 passwords known to hackers.