In a survey of 60 Belmont High School students, roughly 35% reported using the same password for more than six of their online accounts; 33% for one to three accounts; and 18% for four to six online accounts.
Meanwhile, just 11.7% of respondents, seven students, said none of their accounts — which include social media, email, streaming, or school accounts — use the same password. A nominal percentage of students reported using the same password for all of their accounts.
“Most people use the same password for multiple accounts, which is not the best idea,” said Timur Ibragimov, co-founder of the Cybersecurity Club at Belmont High School. “It will be easy to collect personal data.”
“A lot of people don’t know what [password management] is,” added co-founder Enzo Passos. “The people who know, they don’t have a lot of knowledge about it. It should be the thing people should do from all ages.”
The survey, created and distributed by the Cybersecurity Club at Belmont High, helped Passos and Ibragimov get a better sense of their peers’ understanding of cybersecurity.
“It’s really important in today’s era,” Ibragimov said. “Over the past few years, it’s evolved. As the future goes on, it’s going to become a more important topic.”
According to the pair, one of the most “frustrating” findings in the survey was the fact that most students (about 37%) update their passwords only when they’ve forgotten them. Another 28% never change their password.
“There’s also a lot of things online that can steal your personal information and personal data,” Ibragimov said. “It sparked me and Enzo’s interest in cybersecurity.”
According to Passos, passwords should be something personal to the user, and, if possible, a sentence only they would be able to remember. People should use multi-factor authentication, which involves linking a phone number, personal questions or biometric information (voice, face, eyes, for example). Avoid obvious personal information, like birthdays, he said.
“It’s tedious … but that’s what’s safe,” Passos said. “In today’s era, where technology is everything, you need to be as safe as possible.”
Passos said the purpose of the survey was to spread awareness about how people are protecting themselves online or could better protect themselves online.
“We’re trying to use this research to show people some proof why it’s important to not ignore security online,” Ibragimov said.
