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There are many things happening in 2022, and the cybersecurity landscape itself has changed a lot. But passwords are still an essential part (and a huge concern) of our digital life.

They are the keys to our online accounts, safeguarding our important data from malicious actors. This long history and widespread use, however, doesn’t mean everyone knows and practices the best password hygiene.

Read on to have a better look at how people around the world are using passwords. If you may fall into one of these groups, it is time to make a change in the new year.

Most people have between 70 and 80 passwords (NordPass)

According to a survey from NordPass, a typical internet user has between 70 and 80 different passwords. To get an idea about this shocking figure, consider that a four-line poem may be written using just 80 words.

In some industries, the number is even higher. Advertising and media people have to remember 97 different passwords on average, much more than other fields, according to LastPass. On the other hand, government workers have an average of 54 unique passwords to keep track of.

It is easy to explain the widespread use of simple, easy-to-guess passwords. It is unreasonable to expect everybody out there to remember 80 words, let alone 80 different passwords. That is why most don’t bother to set a very strong and unique password to begin with.

55% of people report using just their memory to remember and recall passwords (Bitwarden)

Memory is still the most popular form of password storage and management. Obviously, there are problems with this approach. With so many of them to remember, it is easy to forget and mix up different accounts.

Passwords are also often stored on paper (32%), and documents in people’s computers (23%). Twenty percent of people said they save their passwords in their emails.

While these options are better than nothing, they still lack true management and protection. That is one of the many hard truths of the cybersecurity industry.

The typical length of a password is between six and eight characters (Cybernews)

Cybernews analyzed 15 billion passwords and found that nearly 30 percent of them featured just eight characters. Also, around 20% are six-character passwords.

“123456” is still the most popular password (NordPass)

Since the beginning of the internet, the password “123456” has been the choice for most people. This fact doesn’t change in 2022, according to NordPass’ Most Common Passwords report. Other familiar faces in the top 10 include “qwerty”, “111111”, and “password”.

Nearly 6 in 10 Americans have used personal information such as their name or birth date in passwords (Google)

One typical mistake in password management is using personal facts as keys to your accounts. This is fine for public information like a social network handle. But when used as passwords, it will make you more prone to social engineering attempts.

Unfortunately, about 60% of American adults have this terrible habit. One-third of those who do so use the name of their pet, while 22% add their own name, and 15% include the name of their significant other.

90% of people are anxious about losing passwords (Avast)

90% of internet users participating in Avast’s survey are worried about having their passwords stolen. In particular, the survey found that 46% are “very worried” about a hacker gaining access to their credentials, while 44% are “a little worried.” Only 8% of respondents said they weren’t very worried, and only 2% said they were not worried at all.

52% of internet users admit to resetting passwords regularly (ExpressVPN)

More than half of the participants in a survey from ExpressVPN said that they request at least a password reset once a month. This is how often plenty of people forget their passwords. It is also the best showcase of the ineffectiveness of human memory when it comes to password management.

Weak passwords are the root cause of 81% of all data breaches (Verizon)

As reported by Verizon in their 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report, 81% of hacking-related data breaches can be attributed to weak or stolen credentials. There is a massive gap between it and the second most popular reason (vulnerability exploitation – fewer than 20% of incidents).

The number of stolen credentials has seen an increase of nearly 30% from 2017 as well, showing how reliable it is as a way to break into the IT system of any organization.

Just 45% of US consumers change their passwords after a data breach (Google)

Even after a data breach comes to their attention, a surprising number of Americans do nothing to secure their accounts. As many as half of all American internet users, according to a Google survey, choose to ignore reports of a data breach at a service provider or organization where they have an account.

65% of American adults don’t trust password managers (PasswordManager.com)

According to a survey from this group of cybersecurity researchers and analysts, the most prevalent reason why consumers do not use password managers is that they do not trust them.

34% are concerned that bad actors can compromise their password manager, and 30% said they don’t trust the firms that provide password managers with their personal information.

People aged 55 and older were more likely to avoid using a password manager due to security concerns than any other age group (37.4%). In addition, 20.1% of respondents in this age group said they didn’t use a password manager because they didn’t know what one is.

Our Recommendations

The above figures are the newest proof of the cyber threats that we have long observed. Most of us have a huge number of online accounts to manage. This is the main reason we stick to simple passwords and keep using them in different places.

It doesn’t take much effort to see why this is a bad habit from a cybersecurity perspective. These passwords just make your accounts more vulnerable to a variety of attacks like data breaches and phishing.

At this time, password managers like Locker are still the best tool for securing your accounts. They can eliminate the amount of information you must remember, making password management more painless than ever.

Check out Locker if you are worried about the safety of your accounts and want a simple solution to protect them.