Forgetting Passwords Is Now The Most Annoying Habit For Brits

Our hatred for remembering multiple passwords appears to know no bounds; according to a new survey which details the things we’d rather do than have to keep track of our logins.

A study of over a thousand UK workers by identity management firm Centrify found that forgetting passwords for an online account is more annoying than misplacing your keys, phone battery dying, or even sitting next to a crying baby on a long flight.

And despite many of us believing that our passwords are secure enough to deter hackers, the sheer amount of login accounts people have in their personal and professional lives is leading to some rather embrassing errors.

The survey found that more than one in three (38 percent) have accounts they cannot get into any more because they cannot remember the password, and 28 percent get locked out at least once a month due to multiple incorrect password entries. This is hardly surprising, however, when the survey found nearly half (42 percent) of respondents created at least one new account profile every week – nearly 50 a year.

Counting the cost

But our reluctance to remember passwords could be putting the security of both home and work environments under threat, as employees run a costly risk of forgetting passwords. Centrify found that the average employee wastes £261 a year in company time on trying to manage multiple passwords, which for a company with 500 staff is a loss of more than £130,000 a year.

Workers could also be putting their employer’s data at risk by using mobile devices to access it outside of work, without using proper safety precautions.

Whilst around half (47 percent) of workers use their personal mobile devices for business purposes, one in three (34 percent) admit they do not actually use passwords on these devices despite having  important or confidential information on them, leaving their employers at risk.

“In our new digital lifestyles, which see a blurring of the lines between personal and professional lives, we are constantly having to juggle multiple passwords for everything from email and mobile apps to online shopping and social media,” says Barry Scott, EMEA Chief Technology Officer for Centrify.

“According to our survey, over a quarter of us now enter a password online more than 10 times a day, which could mean 3,500 to 4,000 times a year.  This is becoming a real challenge for employers who need to manage security and privacy concerns and for employees who are costing their companies time and money.”

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