Three quarters of people reuse bank password

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 2 Feb 2010 at 11:16

Almost three quarters of people reuse their online banking password on other sites, according to new research.

Security services firm, Trusteer, claims that 73% of people use their online banking password on other non-financial websites. Almost half (47%) use both their bank login and password on other websites.

Trusteer collected the data using its Rapport browser-security software, which warns user when they attempt to reuse their online banking credentials on other websites. The study was based on a sample of four million users and conducted over the course of a year.

Hacking a bank's database is impossible, probably. Hacking a grocery store's website is a physical target for fraudsters to go after.

Reusing bank logins and passwords is poor security practice, potentially allowing hackers to break into bank accounts after hacking other websites or services, such as webmail accounts or instant messaging.

"Fraudsters go after the weakest link," Amit Klein, chief technology officer at Trusteer, told PC Pro. "When you share banking credentials with a less secure site, that site becomes the weakest link."

"Banks do have a lot of security measures," he added. "Hacking a bank's database is impossible, probably. Hacking a grocery store's website is a physical target for fraudsters to go after."

Klein said banks are increasingly relying on more than login and passwords to validate visitors to their sites, but claims it would be futile for banks to issue their own logins and passwords to avert the risk of customers reusing existing credentials. "Users would use the bank-issued ID on other sites," he claimed.