This year Yubico teamed up with the Ponemon Institute to deliver the 2019 State of Password and Authentication Security Behaviors report. The report was sampled from around 15,000 participants from around the globe which touched on topics which included privacy and security. The report depicts the grim reality of which we still live in today with regards to passwords and their use. For instance, 69% of respondents share passwords with their co-workers. That number equates to 10,350 of the 15,000 people who responded to the survey. Other statistics show:

  • 51% reuse passwords across business and personal accounts
  • 67% do not use multifactor authentication (or 2 factor authentication)
  • 57% have experienced a phishing attack and never changed their password

Though the report depicts what security professionals have stated for years of what not to do, respondents were asked what their 3 top concerns for data security and privacy:

  • Social Security Numbers or Citizen ID’s
  • Payment Account Details
  • Health Information

Their top reasons for the concerns were:

  • Government Surveillance
  • Connected Devices
  • Growing Use of Mobile Devices

The report also when on to state that the annual loss due to employee misuse of password and poor authentication averages around $5.2M. Again, we need to start doing a better job at evangelizing security best practices to our family, friends, and co-workers on what to do to better protect themselves. You can read the full report at the following link Yubico Authentication Report.