Almost 40% German Netizens Do Not Change Passwords

As per a survey done by research institute Forsa for the German BITKOM (German Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media) industry association, 41% of Germans do not change their passwords of online bank accounts, auction sites, mailboxes, PCs or cell phones on a regular basis. Just one out of six users (17%) changes crucial passwords and pins once in every quarter.

The remaining results highlight that 8% of individuals change their passwords in every few years, 11% do it yearly, whereas 6% do the same in six months. The careful users, who modify their access codes weekly and monthly, estimate for 1% and 7% of users respectively.

Furthermore, people up to 29 years old have maximum consideration for security as one out of four of them changes password in every three months, as suggested. Also, senior citizens (over 60s) are lazy as the figure is just 4%. It is noteworthy that women are more susceptible.

Because of the lack of awareness, the number of people at home and in firms vulnerable to spam and phishing attacks has increased.

As per the recent figures by Germany's email security firm 'eleven', Germany sent 16.2% of total spam mails recorded and collected by the firm in its Security Report for April 2010. The trend of increasing spam was also highlighted by 'Network Box' in May 2010, as Germany contributed 3.78% of total spam mails traffic.

Similar to spam, phishing too rose. Symantec's "June (2010) State of Spam and phishing Report" stated that Germany stood fourth on the list of the nations registering the highest share of phishing mails.

A member of Bitkom's Presiding Committee, Dieter Kempf, said that private users and businesses are equally affected. Businesses should set up the systems of their employees in such a manner that passwords have to be changed regularly. Along with this, there should be guidelines for the length and level of complexity of a password, reported h-online.com on June 29, 2010.

Related article: Almost 50% of British Online Surfers Encounter Cyber-Attacks, Talk Talk Discovers

» SPAMfighter News - 7/8/2010