Password reuse remains a major threat - report


Globally, 44% of passwords are reused on multiple accounts, putting tons of sensitive data at risk.

According to Dashlane's Global Password Health Score report, there has been a positive trend in password security and hygiene over the past year, yet there’s still room for improvement.

After analyzing 19 million users and 22,000 customers, the company said that password reuse remains prevalent. Reusing even strong and complicated passwords leaves accounts exposed to password-spraying attacks if they’re not protected with multi-factor authentication.

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The share of password reuse remains upwards of 44% or more across regions. Given a person, on average, has 227 accounts, it’s unrealistic to expect that every one of them is adequately protected.

“Regardless of whether or not a user’s passwords are strong, a reused password can have a domino effect: If one account is compromised, they could all fall down, especially without MFA,” Dashlane said.

While strong passwords combined with MFA is a good start, the security firm sees a future in passkeys that they consider to be a “secure, easy-to-use, and phishing-resistant replacement for passwords.”

Recent research by Keeper Security predicted that passkeys won’t eliminate passwords just yet. Passkeys that use fingerprints, face scans, pin codes, and other methods to unlock devices and accounts quite often lack support from many applications, especially legacy apps, databases, protocols, and resources.


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