77% of students pay particular attention in choosing a password, compared to 86% of adults, which also choose more complex combinations. Women are less attentive than men. While married (89%) create more secure passwords of singles (77%). Recklessness or simple recklessness behind the behavior of young people, that on-line are less cautious than adults in the selection of personal passwords. The fact that adults are able to better protect themselves on the Net than the so-called digital natives. They may cause some surprise results of a new Harris Interactive research for ESET NOD32, one of the largest producers of software for information security.
The research, conducted on a sample of more than 2,000 over18 Americans, in fact, revealed that 77% of students pay particular attention to the password choice compared to 86% of employees, professionals and retirees. It is unclear, however, if these percentages are due to an unscrupulous behavior, rather than to a lack of awareness of the threats or simply 'stress from too many passwords'.
To the question "Do you use the same password for different personal account online?" 46% of respondents answered in the affirmative and, once again, the group most likely to do that is aged between 18 and 34 years (49%), against that of those over 55 (43%). Gender differences also emerge: the majority of those who choose a single password for multiple accounts are women, especially in the group between 18-34 (56%) than that of the over 55 (35%). It turns out however that prudence increases when it comes to PIN. Respondents were asked if they used it often PIN for example both for mobile and for the ATM. Overall, less than one in 10 (8%) use the same PIN for both cash withdrawals and for the voice of the phone box. But again, the most likely to adopt this risky practice is young people between 18 and 34 years (12%), compared to over 55 (only 3%). It is interesting to note that this time, in both bandsmaster data, the less cautious are men, exactly 13% in the first and 2% in the second.
More generally, research shows that 84% of respondents use complex combinations of numbers, letters and symbols for the password selection for the network: an unexpected percentage when you consider the number of password theft over the past 12 months, such as that of thousands account Yahoo! last July. But again are those over 55 the most likely to develop a strong password (89%), compared to young people between the ages of 18:34 (77%).
Other interesting research results Harris Intercative for ESET NOD32 concern the socio-economic differences: the married (89%), for example, create more secure passwords of singles (77%), the same is true for high-income workers (88% ) than those with the lowest income (79%). Even the size of the dwelling shows a correlation with the degree of security of the choices: 87% of homes with more than two occupants creating strong passwords, while the percentage drops to 75 if the house is occupied by one person . Graduates ultimately are the most likely to use the same PIN on different devices (10%), as well as the same password for many of their personal online accounts (52%), compared to graduates or lower level of education that often make the same choice about password.
"In an increasingly interconnected digital eco-system, from the social media accounts to banking, access to different devices such as desktop, lap-top, smartphones and tablets, the password remains, even today, the frontier of computer security and the protection of privacy. You then need to choose it more carefully. " This is the warning of experts on computer security of ESET NOD32. Especially for young digital natives.