A recent survey by Rainbow Technologies Inc. indicates that the use of insecure passwords can be costly – and potentially risky – for corporate data.
A summary of the findings shows that:
• 55 per cent of end users reported that they write passwords down at least once;
• nine per cent of all users write every password down;
• 40 per cent of users share passwords, contributing to insecurity in virtual private networks (VPN) and Secure Sockets Layer VPN environments;
• the average user manages more than five passwords and over 24 per cent of users have at least eight user names and passwords on their system at any one time;
• 80 per cent of respondents indicated that their organizations have implemented password-strengthening techniques (using “nonwords” for passwords, or combinations of numbers and letters) and that this actually increases the likelihood that the password is written down or forgotten;
• 51 per cent of all users require IT help to access applications because they forgot the password.
