73% of respondents agreed that password security has become a bigger issue over the last year, with 40% stating that half or more of their employees have access to confidential information secured only with basic level authentication solutions including passwords, smart cards, or tokens. A massive 68% of C-Level executives say network passwords have been exchanged between colleagues in their firm.
With enterprise security breaches on the rise, companies must do more to stop the sharing of passwords amongst colleagues and put formal systems in place to meet security compliance and governance mandates.
The study also suggests that leading executives are considering new types of enterprise authentication solutions and that fingerprint biometrics is by far the top consideration. This might be attributed to the fact that fingerprint authentication enables ease-of-use with increased productivity, a combination that topped the list of security priorities in the study.
"Executives are increasingly concerned with the misuse of passwords amongst colleagues and the growing danger of internal and external threats to the network," said George Skaff, vice president of marketing for DigitalPersona. "The cost of businesses protecting themselves against the basic threat of password and identity theft, in relation to potential cost to the company if they are attacked, is very small. The problem with passwords is that user behaviour is unpredictable and hard to control. As a result, passwords are expensive to manage, are inherently vulnerable, and present a huge security risk to the company."