Passwords usage easily outpaces biometrics in the UK ~ lotfi

Biometrics replaced the trusty old password just yet.

A new study from SecureAuth revealed that 39% of United Kingdom's IT decision makers (ITDMs) admitted their firms only use passwords, and that figure grows to 45% with public sector organisations. Meanwhile, 39% of firms that have over 1,000 employees also admitted that's the case with their companies as well.

IT and telecoms companies bucked that trend with 74% of those companies using more than one method of authentication and the figures come as device manufacturers clamour to develop more and more biometric solutions.

Opinium conducted the research for SecureAuth by taking a sample of answers from 500 ITDMs within UK organisations with 50 or more employees.

In the future, 44% plan to change of enhance security model in the next two years and 28% think that companies will begin to use biometric security measures in the coming five years.

Employees using three or more devices

When it comes to their attitudes towards employees, over half (54%) are worried they could compromise access to the corporate network, intentionally or unintentionally. This comes at the same time as huge growth in bring your own device and flexible working, and 42% of ITDMs admitted employees are using three or more devices to access corporate systems. The study also found that 33% of employee time is spent accessing the organisation's IT network remotely.

Rather worryingly 20% of respondents said they "don't know" how many IT security policies their organisation has in place. Even worse, 24% admitted that passwords are altered less than two to three times each year.