Exclusive: Lots of us use password managers, but we still don’t really trust them
Security worries cloud impressions of password managers, survey finds
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With most of us amassing digital accounts all the time,password managersare a useful tool to help take the hassle out of keeping track of every single login and password we have.
In an exclusive survey of a thousand people,TechRadar Profound that three-quarters of users have at least one password manager to store our credentials, yet most do not seem overly confident in their abilities to keep these details safe.
A third of those surveyed used a combination of a dedicated manager and one integrated with their browser, while another third used just one of the two. A little over a tenth used two dedicated password managers, and a quarter didn’t use any manager at all.
Trust issues
When asked to score their trust in the security of password managers, the results were less than impressive. Six out of ten was the most common score, chosen by 144 people, closely followed by five and seven, chosen by 140 and 136 people respectively.
Perhaps these middling figures can be explained by the recent stories ofprominent password managers being hacked, or maybe people are worried about the variousprivacy issues surrounding behemoths like Apple and Google, both of whom make it hard to resist using their respective proprietary mangers, if you happen to use any of their devices and/ or browsers.
The results may also reflect the conflicted attitudes people have towards such companies. On the one hand, people may believe that tech giants must be keeping our passwords safe - aside from having the resources to maintain a strong security posture, it would be catastrophic PR for them to have some kind of major breach, given how much they have to lose.
But on the other, there is plenty of mistrust around how such corporations do business, with the aforementioned privacy issues a real cause for concern for many.
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However, analyzing the rest of the scores, more people did pick a rating between eight and ten than one and three - 284 to 215. Also, 110 gave theseutilitiesa perfect ten, and 97 one out of ten.
Splitting the results down the middle, just under half of all respondents (43.6%) rated the trustworthiness of password managers between one and five, and just over half (54.6%) between six and ten.
5 things you need to consider before buying a password manager>Nearly all of us are guilty of reusing passwords in the workplace>Apple’s announcement may spell the end for passwords – and the beginning for biometrics
The results also contradict aprevious surveywe conducted, where most respondents said they didn’t use a password manager.Another surveywe conducted also found that most people don’t usepassword generatorseither - which are integrated with virtually all password managers, but there are standalone versions too.
These two facts combined perhaps explain why so many people form bad password habits. In fact, there have beenvarious reports on the state of passwordsglobally, and pretty much all of them arrive at the same conclusion - we need to do better with them.
However, this may be a moot point, given thatpasswordless systemsare increasing in prominence, set to be the new technology securing our digital world. These include biometric systems - such as facial recognition and fingerprint scanners -passkeysand single sign on (SSO) technologies, which are available in manyidentity management software.
Lewis Maddison is a Reviews Writer for TechRadar. He previously worked as a Staff Writer for our business section, TechRadar Pro, where he had experience with productivity-enhancing hardware, ranging from keyboards to standing desks. His area of expertise lies in computer peripherals and audio hardware, having spent over a decade exploring the murky depths of both PC building and music production. He also revels in picking up on the finest details and niggles that ultimately make a big difference to the user experience.
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