All News

Online bankers 'reusing passwords'

February 03, 2010

Almost half of online banking customers use the same login details to access their finances as they do for other password-protected websites, a study has found.

According to online security firm Trusteer, 47% of internet users stick with the same username and password for a number of websites, including banking facilities, leaving themselves exposed to a potentially devastating raid on their personal accounts.

The same study found that 73% of online bank users had a unique username but a generic password that was "repurposed" across numerous websites.

Trusteer said by failing to set up unique credentials for each website, internet users are making themselves an easy target for online fraudsters.

Amit Klein, CTO of Trusteer and head of the company's research organisation, said: "Using stolen credentials remains the easiest way for criminals to bypass the security measures implemented by banks to protect their online applications, so we wanted to see how often users repurpose their financial service usernames and passwords.

"Our findings were very surprising, and reveal that consumers are not aware, or are choosing to ignore, the security implications of reusing their banking credentials on multiple websites."

Copyright © Press Association 2010

Latest News