Jumping the gun on a new era of security-informed online consumers

Is an era of Zero Trust consumers really dawning?

A survey paid for by a digital ID authentication company claims to have identified the Zero Trust consumers – people who understand the growing risks to their identity and who are willing to do (and endure) what it takes to minimize them.

The biometrics vendor is Daon, and its analysis of the survey results is that “consumers are eager to see (and use) more advanced, passwordless security.”

But like many other vendor-funded surveys on the topic, Daon’s publication cannot hide the fact that consumers continue to use passwords despite the fact that today there are more-secure options.

A word about the survey is required. Daon says it was voluntary and anonymous. It recorded the sentiments of about 2,000 people in the United States and 1,000 in the United Kingdom.

Nothing else is revealed about how respondents were recruited and how they participated. They are important factors here because many findings seem to represent the thoughts of upper middle class and well-educated (and, obviously, Western, English-speaking, developed economy) people who self-selected for the survey.

The Indian Express news publisher has just run an article illustrating a more global perspective.

The top password in India is “password,” right up there with “123456.” (The top credential in the United States, of course, is “password” sometimes combined with a numeral, as in “1password.” Self-selected respondents likely would not be so egregiously ill-informed.)

Customer authentication management firm Transmit Security has put out a guide explaining multi-factor authentication. The people surveyed would benefit but most others still need to be conditioned to use a functional password. A new era might be a ways off.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  consumer adoption  |  digital ID  |  multifactor authentication  |  passwordless authentication  |  Transmit Security  |  Zero Trust