WASHINGTON—New research indicates that 39% of Americans have a difficult time remembering their passwords, which leads to unsafe online behavior.
The study, conducted by Pew Research, dubbed this group the "password challenged" and also discovered they tend to be, not surprisingly, more worried about the safety and security of their passwords. Forty-four percent of password challenged Internet users are concerned about the security of their passwords, compared to 22% of people who have no problem managing their passwords.
“Even with this concern, many Americans, especially the password challenged, are not following the best practices of digital security,” stated Bill Hardekopf, CEO of LowCards.com, Birmingham, Ala., in his analysis of the study.
The report shows that the password challenged are more likely to say they use less secure passwords because more complicated passwords are too difficult to remember (41% vs. 14% of those who are comfortable managing passwords). They are also more likely to use the same password for multiple accounts (45% vs. 36%).
“Worse, many of the password challenged write down their passwords on a piece of paper, save them in a digital note or save them in their web browser, which are all options cybersecurity experts discourage,” added Hardekopf, citing the report.
Being password challenged seems to correlate with age—44% of online adults aged 30 to 64 say they have a difficult time keeping track of their passwords compared to only 33% of 18- to 29-year-olds.