Although millennials grew up with consumer technology in personal computers and mobile telephones among others, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are adhering to good security practices in using them.
Millennials are in for a surprise stat. Folks at 50+ and older are using stronger, more secure passwords than the presumptively, technologically-adept millennials.
A new survey from analytics firm Gigya has revealed that 18-34 year olds are far more likely than 51-69 year olds to create insecure passwords.
The firm, which provides an API through which businesses can let customers log into their websites via social media accounts, surveyed over 4,000 adults in the US and the UK.
The survey revealed that 18-34 year olds are more likely to use bad passwords, inevitably leading to reporting that their online account has been compromised. 6.6% of millennials use passwords such as ‘1234’ and ‘password’ and even their birthdays as their password.
Meanwhile, only 2.2 percent of those surveyed in the 51-69 category, followed similarly weak password practice.
Such stats explain why 82% of those polled in the 51-69 category did not report any hacking attempt or compromised accounts in the past year. Meanwhile, 35% of respondents in the 18-54 category have revealed that at least one of their accounts was hacked in the past year. That percentage is twice the number reported by those aged between 51 to 69.
Is the younger generation of web and technology users, broadly speaking, lazy? Or perhaps there is an aura of invincibility, with the delusion that nothing can go wrong precisely because of their near-lifelong acquaintance with technology.
There is a case to be made wherein folks in their 50s and 60s are far more likely to follow the guidelines of better cybersecurity than millennials who are fundamentally catered to in an age of the omnipresent internet.
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