Younger Americans more likely to reuse passwords, poll says

The number of online accounts compromised by hackers is now in the trillions — enough, perhaps, to make even technophobes think hard about the security of their passwords. Indeed, many are — especially older Americans, a new survey indicates.

Start with the nowfamiliar advice to avoid reusing the same password across important accounts such as email, banking and social media. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 41 percent of Americans say they use unique passwords for most or all online services. Just a third of adults under age 45 do so, however, compared to about half their elders.

Anyone who reuses a password increases the chances of falling victim to data theft — a serious risk given such major breaches as the hacks that compromised three billion Yahoo accounts in 2013. Hackers often test big batches of passwords stolen in one breach against other potentially sensitive accounts, a practice called “credential stuffing.”

Older Americans are also more likely to commit their passwords to paper, the poll found. Fifty-six percent of people aged 60 and older do so, compared to 20 percent of the under-30 crowd. If kept away from prying eyes, written passwords are generally considered a good idea.

Inadequate attention to password security has helped fuel an epidemic of cybercrime. A Verizon report published last year on hacking-related data breaches said 81 percent involved weak, reused or stolen credentials — up from 63 percent the previous year.

It doesn't help that the experts themselves haven't been consistent with their advice.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology revised its best password practices last year. The new guidelines run counter to the information-security gospel that persists in much of the corporate world — namely, that that passwords should change frequently and must contain both uppercase and lowercase letters with required symbols and numbers.