82% of UK IT leaders admit to sharing their Netflix password

My1Login, the UK’s leading provider of Identity & Access Management solutions, today announced the results of a new survey of UK IT leaders, which revealed that 82 percent share their password to access Netflix, with 63 percent sharing a password between two and five other people.

The survey was carried out at DTX Manchester in April 2022, and it studied the attitudes of 120 IT leaders towards password sharing and passwordless security.

The survey highlighted that a staggering 94 percent believe it is okay to share passwords for certain applications. Passwords for TV streaming applications were the most acceptable, with 85 percent of respondents saying they would be willing to share them with their friends, family and even colleagues. These findings come in the wake of the recent news around Netflix planning to introduce stricter controls to prevent password sharing, and they highlight that most UK IT leaders will be impacted by the changes.

Commenting on the survey findings, Mike Newman, CEO of My1Login, said: “Our survey highlights that even those who are experts in the field of IT and cybersecurity are still not following best password practices. While sharing a password to a Netflix account may seem harmless, our data has suggested that 91 percent of people use the same password across multiple accounts, so these shared passwords will provide access to other online accounts, many of which will be corporate, and could put sensitive data at risk if they fell into the wrong hands.”

To understand what would improve credential and password security, survey respondents were also asked about their thoughts towards passwordless and if they believe it is more secure than password-based security. A staggering 45 percent said passwordless was more secure, with only 32 percent voting in favour of traditional passwords. The survey also highlighted that 47 percent of respondents believe transitioning to passwordless would significantly reduce their organisation’s risk of cyberattack.

“It is time the world wakes up to the reality that passwords are a dated and insecure authentication method. Internet users have too many online accounts today to realistically remember a unique password for each, and this results in them reusing passwords or using insecure variants which are easy to compromise,” continued Newman. “To solve this problem, the safest approach is to transition your enterprise to passwordless authentication.  Simply, if users don’t have passwords, or don’t know them, how can they put the business at risk by reusing them, sharing them, or by being phished of them?