Delinea announced results from a survey
at the 2023 BlackHat USA Conference in Las Vegas last week, finding that
password security continues to be a highly relevant topic even as cybersecurity
strategies move toward a passwordless future. Of 100 business hall attendees
polled, 54% said that "passwordless" is a viable concept while 79% agreed that
passwords are evolving or becoming obsolete.
When asked how they protect their passwords, the majority of
attendees surveyed indicated they use an additional authentication method to
secure their credentials and identity. Seventy-three percent (73%) use some
form of multi-factor authentication (MFA), while 57% specifically indicated
they use an authenticator app and 40% use biometrics. Over half (52%) use a
password manager while 34% use a PAM solution to securely store their
passwords. One in five (21%) indicated they are using passkeys now instead of
or in addition to passwords.
"The
findings of this survey indicate an understanding of what passwordless means
beyond just being a marketing term - specifically that it's moving passwords
into the background and using easier additional forms of authentication
instead," said Joseph Carson, Chief Security Scientist and Advisory CISO at
Delinea. "This takes on increased significance when 75% of respondents also
acknowledged that the fastest way to get access to a network is through social
engineering or stolen identities and passwords. The quicker organizations and
end users alike can evolve their identity and access security beyond passwords,
the safer we'll be as a society."
The
polling also revealed a perception that organizations are lagging far behind
nation states and cybercriminals in the ongoing CyberWar. Only 12% of
respondents indicated that they believe organizations are currently ahead of
countries and criminals.
The
survey also uncovered a range of opinions about the threat of artificial
intelligence (AI) programs, with 34% stating that it's still early days and
current iterations are not truly AI while 22% indicated that an AI takeover is
already here. Only 11% of those polled expressed confidence that AI will never
take over.