Last updated: 14 November 2019
2.7 billion people around the world enjoy the use of the Internet, moving from one connected device to another all day long. It’s undeniable the Internet is becoming more & more central to all our lives, through shopping, supporting administrative tasks, managing customer care, communication with friends, as well as job or house searches. Access to a wide array of digital services is undoubtedly a huge benefit; however, it’s important to consider the growing complexity and pain points we deal with when trying to connect to numerous online accounts, remembering logins and passwords, filling in registration forms, entering your payment credentials etc.
According to our latest data (available in an infographic here), the digital experience for consumers is becoming more and more exhausting. Not least because we have to remember an average of 25 usernames and password combinations each… And figuring out which username corresponds to which account is a question that you have to answer each time you want to access an online service. This inconvenience is bad for consumers, bad for businesses, and for governments who will either face people abandoning their transactions and losing revenues or driving unnecessary costs (if people call a support line instead of using an online service).
Aside from the frustration generated by the inconvenience of a growing pile of usernames and passwords, the users’ digital experience is also burdened by the fundamental weakness of the password model. No matter how complex the password chosen is, a determined hacker won’t need much time to access users’ online accounts. Keeping the single-authentication username/password model as our key authentication platform will ensure to cyber-criminals have a prosperous time in the future. Consider the recent hacker exploits, featuring 5 million Gmail addresses and passwords stolen, Home Depot accounts hacked, Dropbox username and passwords stolen and many more… (check here to see if your logins have been compromised).
Only 37% of companies today use multi-factor authentication for their employees (+30% vs 2012) and 53% by 2016. It’s showing a growing recognition of the importance of protecting business users and their data online. And if organizations care about their data, people certainly care even more about theirs.
There’s an urgent need to bring trust and convenience to people to remove frustration, delays and vulnerability we have when accessing our online services. As soon as they will have it, they’ll be as free and happy as John. One approach we take to helping people with this is mobile authentication – see how it helps here:
What do you think of mobile authentication? How would it help you or your business? Let us know @Gemalto or leave a comment in the section below.
