By Rizal Raoul Reyes
ROUGHLY half of Internet users that Kaspersky Lab ZAO polled revealed they shared passwords with somebody or left them visible for people to see.
A recent consumer survey by the Russian cybersecurity firm revealed 44 percent of those polled said so. About 1,394 respondents were from the Philippines. “Consumers need to be more cyber-savvy about passwords. Once shared, it is very difficult to know exactly where your password will end up,” Kaspersky Security Researcher David Emm was quoted in a statement as saying. “Our research shows that there is a real disconnect between the understanding of why we need strong passwords and the action people take to keep them safe.”
Emm said no one would expect a friend or family member to knowingly divulge a password. “But by sharing passwords, consumers are increasing the risk of them falling into the wrong hands.”
Being a non-cyber-smart individual would enable cybercriminals to unravel and gain access into the online lives of consumers, Emm added. Respondents to the survey believed that strong passwords were important for the online services they valued most highly.
Consumers polled said the sites most in need of strong passwords were for online banking (54 percent), e-mail (44 percent) and social-media sites (24 percent).
The list of the top three most important applications was almost identical, at 53 percent for online banking, 43 percent for e-mail and 21 percent for social-media sites.
Moreover, consumers also believe that online shopping and payment applications need solid passwords, but did not believe it has the same value on these sites.
Only 29 percent regarded online shopping to be a personally important service, although over a third (38 percent) felt it warranted a secured password. In addition, 29 percent agreed that online-payment systems needed a steady password, with slightly fewer 23 percent regarding these services as personally valuable.
Kaspersky expressed concern that over a quarter (29 percent) believes there is no need to have additional protection for their personal credentials when using these services. They expect the brands they shop with to provide all the protection they need.
Putting their personal information at even greater risk, a third (33 percent) of Internet users said they freely shared passwords with family members with 44 percent have both shared passwords and left them visible to others. One in ten (11 percent) shared passwords with friends and a surprising 6 percent with colleagues.
Should it get into the wrong hands, Kaspersky pointed out this password could unfasten all information stored on that e-mail address. Kaspersky said the consequences would be grave because this could grant cybercriminals easy access to personal and financial information and hacked accounts can be used to distribute malicious links and files, harming others.
“At worst, entire identities could be put at risk,” Emm said. “Even the most complex password is weak if it’s visible to others, so keep it to yourself.”