Nearly Two in Five Irish Adults Have Not Updated Their Main Password in the Last 12 Months – OneLogin Research

Research Published by OneLogin as It Opens Its New Dublin Office and Creates 30 New Roles

Nearly two in five Irish adults (39 percent) haven’t updated their main password in the last 12 months, according to new research.

The research, published today by OneLogin, a global leader in identity and access management, finds that 20% of Irish adults haven’t updated their passwords in over two years and a further five percent can’t recall the last time they updated their passwords.

The research was commissioned to mark the opening of OneLogin’s new EMEA headquarters in Dublin and the creation of 30 new roles.

Founded in 2009 by two Danish brothers, Thomas and Christian Pedersen, OneLogin enables organisations to deliver a simple and secure way for employees to access apps and data, anytime from anywhere.

Its new Dublin team, led by Elle Lathrop, will be responsible for driving sales, engineering and customer services activities across the EMEA region and will be hiring various other cross-functional roles including marketing, security and operations.  It hopes to fill the 30 new roles, based out of the Iconic Offices, Greenway Building in Dublin 2, before the end of 2020.

In total, OneLogin employs over 300 employees and has entities in the US, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, Australia, and Japan.  Clients include Tesco, Fairfax Media, NTT Data, Fujitsu Social Science Laboratory and the British Red Cross.

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Cybersecurity research

In 2017, the global cost of cybercrime was estimated to be in excess of $600 billion and this figure is expected to continue to grow into the future.  In parallel, CyberSecurity Ireland predicts that by 2023, $248 billion annually will be invested in cybersecurity.

OneLogin’s research, conducted by YouGov amongst 1,000 Irish adults over the age of 18, sought to analyse Irish adults’ online security preferences and behaviours.  When people were asked for the most annoying method of online security, 31% of those surveyed cited Captcha, the random image and number generator and a further 17% said one-time passcodes, typically sent via email or text.  12% said hard tokens such as dongles or smart cards, and a further 11 percent cited answering security questions, including their mother’s maiden name or first pet.

Key findings:

When asked for their most annoying method of online security:

• 31% of Irish adults said Captcha, the random image and number generator
• 17% said one-time passcodes (i.e. where you are sent a code e.g. via text, email etc. to enter each time)
• 12% said a hard token (i.e. a physical security device that you need to use e.g. dongles, smart cards, card readers etc.)
• 11% said answering security questions, like a mother’s maiden name or first pet
• 5% said biometrics (e.g. fingerprint or facial recognition etc)
• 14% said they didn’t know or didn’t find any security processes particularly annoying.

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Storing passwords

The research also looked at how Irish adults store their passwords.  According to OneLogin’s research:

• 27% of Irish adults write down their passwords on paper,
• 24% save them on their phone or computer
• 16% use a dedicated third-party password manager or app (such as Google Password Manager or OneLogin)
• 43% either don’t have any particular method of storing their passwords or used another method other than the above.

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