“Millions of Americans are fed up with overly complicated web and phone security measures, a new study has found,” Marie Haaland reports for SWNS. “Researchers who polled 2,000 US adults found 81 percent don’t see the need for what they consider unnecessary security procedures. Forty-eight percent are fed up with the use of two-step verification and seven in 10 (71 percent) are frustrated by captcha codes, as they tend to feature illegible words.”
“Commissioned by analytics software firm FICO, the research also found that more than two-thirds (71 percent) think there are simply too many security measures nowadays,” Haaland reports. “TJ Horan, a vice president for fraud solutions at FICO, said: ‘There’s a real discrepancy here — consumers are glad their bank is protecting them, but frustrated that the protection is making it harder for them to open accounts and make purchases.'”
“Having to remember email addresses to recover passwords is an irritation for 58 percent — and similarly, six in 10 (65 percent) find it annoying when email systems log them out randomly as a security measure,” Haaland reports. “Interestingly, 46 percent even consider airport security to be an inconvenience and 38 percent regard mobile phone PINs as somewhat of a hassle.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Uh, cough:
Remembering your password doesn’t have to feel like a memory challenge. With Face ID on iPhone X, your face is your password. – Apple Inc.
SEE ALSO:
Apple debuts new TV commercial for iPhone X: ‘Memory’ – July 9, 2018
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
What’s the agenda?
I read the NY Post article. When a story like this is published, you have to ask what their agenda is.
Looks like somebody wants to accelerate the adoption of biometrics. You know, because passwords are so HARD to remember.
Locking my front door is a hassle. But I do it anyway.
“adoption of biometrics” offers the hackers just another challenge.
You still need to have a backup to “biometrics” for when “biometrics” doesn’t work for whatever reason, like you suddenly have a new scar, bandage, zit or capped tooth.
Life ain’t easy unless you live in the woods in Alaska, but then it gets tough again when the bear wants your food cache.
The agenda is to deflect attention away from the fact that passwords are most often stolen from online vendors, not from device users.
The agenda is to deflect attention away from the poor political scene, machinations, and more.
Let’s not play this down, it’s a major pain. I can’t turn any of my Macs, Apple TV, iPad or iPhones (several generations) without Apple–the worst of password offenders–pushing some message on me to authorize this or that. Don’t they get that I don’t WANT iMessages on the MacMini that I use alongside Apple TV to drive my TV experience. I don’t always have my phone handy and don’t WANT to use two step. I am tired of these things being pushed on me.
I agree completely passwords are bullshit
Maybe the biggest reason the answers per our personal “security & info” will be on our body.
After the first time the idiots complaining find out their bank account is drained or their identity is stolen, and going through all the motions to repair that damage, they might have a different view of security. It is a hassle, but if it prevents that, I’m all for it.
True…but it doesn’t seem to matter. In the last two years…more personal info has been exposed than the 10 before..despite the dramatic increase in security. My passwords don’t mean Jack if my grocery store/bank/whatever, keeps my info in free text on a server running windows XP.
Use Apple Pay then
I just learned the security lesson the hard way. Always been very trusting and not thinking of bad stuff happening.
Last month we were working to jump my son’s car. Left one vehicle running while we were hooking up the dead car with jumper cables. Guy walks up , 20 feet away, and steals my car. Never thought it would happen to me. In a good neighborhood too.
Kill passwords and let God sort ’em out.
To be fair, a lot of people think wearing seatbelts in cars is a hassle too, right up until they have an accident….
Personally I think it’s a great way to kill off the stupid….
We live in a polyana society that, regardless how many September 11’s we have, our security should be taken care of by somebody else and they should be blamed when measures fail. If my 7 year old nephew wanted no security on his iPad, he should have that choice. But with all the legal documents and confidential documents and accesses to my bank and all my credit cards in my keychain in the cloud, I’m quite happy that Apple gives me multi factor authentication and and a Secure Enclave. The security of Apple product even more so than reliability and durability is what led me to a Mac. There were times when windows computers got viruses constantly from benign expeditions on the web. If only these people surveyed had experienced those days of losing everything and starting over, they would understand how important security is. Companies can offer different level of security for my nephew and me but nobody should point a finger at the company when their data is stolen. I have 20-alphanumeric character authentication on all my devices thanks to an article I read here. I love the feeling of being secure in my personal effects and documents and I appreciating Apple for offering it.
Two-step seems like a pain in the ass, but I have one website I use that skips the email address and password. Instead the login page asks you for only your phone number. Then the one time code is your password, and done! I thought I hated two step verification until it became the singular method of logging in. It feels very modern by comparison to the layers of deprecated security measures stupidly stacked on top of each other on other clunky websites.
If the *only* login info is the phone number, that’s not 2-step and definitely not 2-factor authentication (2FA). 2FA relies on two different credentials: something you know (login/pw) and something you have (phone). A different factor that could be used is biometrics (something you are)
If the login is only “something you have” and the login sequence is not *directly* tied to either the fingerprint scanner (“something you are”) or passcode (“something you know”), then it’s not really a secure login. Someone could have taken the phone from you after you unlocked it and gone to this website, and there’s no way the site could know it’s not really you.
That said, if it’s a low-significance website, this could be an acceptable compromise between convenience and security.
Make identity easy -check out Auth0.
Yeah I’m shilling it, I love the service.
Enter https://www.trusona.com
No password solution developed in part by Frank Abagnale (Yes, from Catch Me If You Can)
I see the need for effective password protection, though I am tired of it as well. For years I was able to remember all the passwords I needed in life and work but after looking just now it appears that I have approximately 100 passwords total to deal with between work and personal. The situation has become absurd.
i made a decision to stop using companies that insist on password login. passwords are hard to remember and writing them down to remember violates so called security.