Employee Password Reuse A Top Concern For IT Execs

IT professionals say the reuse of passwords by company employees is a significant concern, reports said Monday (Jan. 2).

A new survey by Gemalto found that 90 percent of IT professionals are concerned about employees reusing passwords they use for personal accounts in their professional lives, researchers said. Still, 68 percent of those surveyed said they would be fine with having an employee use the same passwords for personal social media accounts and company accounts.

The research aimed to shed light on the impact employee security measures have on the enterprise overall.

François Lasnier, SVP of identity protection at Gemalto, said in a statement that consumer habits are impacting how individuals approach security while at work.

“From credential sharing to authentication practices, it’s clear that consumer trends are having a big impact on enterprise security,” he stated. “But businesses need to make sure their data isn’t compromised by bad personal habits.”

Nearly half of IT professionals said they have implemented extra employee training to combat this kind of security threat, while nearly the same amount said they have increased their corporate security budgets. Nearly two-thirds said they plan to implement a stronger authentication measure for their companies within two years — up from 51 percent that said the same last year, according to reports.

“For IT leaders, it’s important that they keep pushing for security to be a priority at the board level and ensure that it’s front-of-mind for everyone in an organization,” reflected Lasnier.

According to IT professionals, more than half of them told researchers that they expect methods of consumer security and enterprise security to merge together by the end of the decade.