About 60 per cent of consumers find usernames and passwords cumbersome, and more than three-fourths (77 per cent) are interested in using alternatives to protect their security on the Internet, according to new report - Digital Trust in the IoT Era from Accenture.
The research, based on a survey of 24,000 consumers across six continents, reveals that openness to alternatives is pervasive in countries in many different parts of the world, with consumers in China and India most likely to be open to alternatives, at 92 per cent and 84 per cent, respectively. More than three-quarters (78 per cent) of consumers in each of Brazil, Mexico and Sweden, and 74 per cent in the United States, are also willing to consider security methods other than usernames and passwords.
“As hackers use more-sophisticated and less-obvious methods, passwords are no longer seen as the definitive answers to the security question,” said Robin Murdoch, managing director of Accenture’s Internet and Social business segment in a statement. “Traditional one-step passwords are now being matched with alternative methods using biometric technologies such as fingerprint recognition and two-step device verification. Within the next few years we are likely to see many more consumers embracing these and other alternative methods.”
The survey also found that 46 per cent of consumers globally are confident in the security of their personal data.