Pass It On

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Today we log in to online accounts all the time – from transferring money between bank accounts to shopping online, checking the weather, or booking a taxi on a night out. But what if you can’t log in to the account you need, when you need it? What if you get the dreaded ‘password error’ message?

With our increasing dependency on such accounts to get us through our day-to-day lives, people are increasingly facing a dilemma – how to choose their passwords. Some end up using strong, different passwords for every single account so that nothing can be hacked or exploited, but risk forgetting their passwords in the process. Others choose memorable passwords that make their lives easier, but also play right into cybercriminals’ hands.

Strong, but complicated

Answering the dilemma, option one, involves using strong passwords that are hard to remember. Many consumers understand the need for strong passwords on their accounts. When asked which three of their online accounts required the strongest passwords, 75% of South African consumers selected online banking accounts, 54% selected payment applications including e-wallets, and 29% selected online shopping.

However, the difficulty of remembering all these strong passwords means people are likely to forget them and get locked out of their accounts. Two in five (35%) of South Africans cannot quickly restore passwords to their personal online accounts after losing them. This leads to frustration and stress if they can’t carry on with their normal activities.

 When it comes to password storage, almost half (40%) store passwords insecurely, with a number of internet users (17%) writing them on a notepad so that they don’t have to remember them, which puts their security at risk.

Easy, but unsafe