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Employees still risking IT security, new survey finds

Companies are having their security put at risk by employees writing down or sharing their passwords according to a new survey.

The study by encryption and secure access company SafeNet of 67,000 people found that 50percent of respondents still wrote down their computer passwords.Over a third shared their passwords with other users.

But companies themselveswere taking security more seriously by implementing policiesrequiring longer passwords or ones containing alphanumericcharacters. However, this has bought its own problems as these morecomplex password were difficult to remember and users had to changethem more often. 30 per cent of respondents were required to changepasswords seven or more times in a single year. This figure had risenthree per cent from last year's survey.

The survey found that thenumber and complexity of passwords increased the likelihood of usersforgetting or writing down passwords sharply.

"This surveyreinforces what we hear from our customers about their informationsecurity concerns," said SafeNet chairman and CEO, Tony Caputo."Whether employees are writing their passwords down, orfrequently calling the internal help desk because they can'tremember them, the organisation can be at risk while experiencingloss of productivity."

The survey questioned amix of customers, prospects, partners and resellers of SafeNet in theUS, UK, France and Germany.

https://www.safenet-inc.com

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