SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bitwarden, the leading open source password manager for both consumers and business, announced today the results of a new global password management survey. The survey shows that while there is awareness of password security best practices, there is still work to be done to put that awareness to full use.
World Password Day (May 6th) marks the perfect time to take stock of consumer behavior and showcase a path forward.
While Americans are more likely to report being affected by a data breach in the last 18 months (one-third versus one-fourth of global respondents), 1 in 3 are more interested in having a password that is easy to remember versus being secure. Speaking of memory, a majority of Americans rely on it to keep track of passwords yet nearly one-third reset their passwords daily or multiple times per week because they’ve forgotten them. Experts recommend long, complex, and unique passwords per site, but since this is impossible for any normal human, 9 out of 10 Americans still reuse passwords across multiple sites.
The good news is that Americans are putting those safe password practices into play in some areas:
- 60% of Americans have an average password length of 9-15 characters (14 is considered a secure start point)
- Nearly half of Americans (45%) say they never share passwords in their personal life but this does fall behind the rest of the world where 54% say they don’t share passwords in their personal life
- A majority (56%) of Americans never share passwords at work, which is on par with the rest of the globe (57%)
- Americans are more likely (40%) to use a password manager than the rest of the globe (31%)
- While the majority of Americans (66%) are not required to use a password manager at work, nearly 3 in 4 Americans (73%) think their workplace should provide a password manager at work, which is higher than the rest of the globe (nearly 65%)
- Most Americans (57%) started using a password manager because they thought it seemed like a good way to protect their digital information
“It’s encouraging to see so many people reporting familiarity with password management best practices,” said Bitwarden CEO Michael Crandell. “While there are holdouts, it shows we need to do more education on the benefits and ease of use of password managers. We don’t think hackers are going to go away, so we want to provide basic password management, for free, to individuals everywhere.”
Password Security for All
Try Bitwarden as an individual across all of your devices for free, or upgrade to the Bitwarden Premium Account for just $10/year at https://bitwarden.com/pricing/.
To enable your workplace, start a free 7-day trial for business plans at https://bitwarden.com/pricing/business/.
Methodology and Full Survey Results
The survey, conducted independently by Propeller Insights, surveyed over 1,600 internet users globally on how they view and manage their own password security.
For complete survey details, visit https://bitwarden.com/blog/post/world-password-day-survey-2021.
About Bitwarden
Bitwarden empowers organizations and individuals to safely store and share sensitive data. With a transparent, open source approach to password management, Bitwarden makes it easy for users to extend robust security practices to all of their online experiences — no matter their location or device. Cloud and self-hosted options give customers flexibility to meet the most stringent security requirements. Bitwarden is available in nearly 40 languages with a passionate global community of security experts and enthusiasts. The company is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California and has a globally distributed team. Learn more at bitwarden.com.
