Ranked - countries where people are most likely to forget passwords

Global research also reveals average number of digital accounts for each person

Study claims to show where people tend to be most forgetful when it comes to internet and computer passwords. AP

Iceland, Luxembourg and the UAE topped the charts for password forgetfulness, according to a study by a company that makes password management software.

“Icelanders struggle significantly with password management,” said the research by Psono, which provides open source and self-hosted password control solutions.

Psono assessed users in 55 countries to try to identify the 10 nations where people are most likely to forget their passwords.

The study also calculated the average number of accounts in each country where a user would need passwords.

According to Psono, the US, with an average number of 80 digital accounts for each user, emerged at the top of the account ownership list. It was followed by the UK and Ireland, where there was an average of 70 accounts per person, then New Zealand at 60.

The research considered several sets of data to reach a final score on password forgetfulness.

Data was based on internet searches for the phrase “password reset”, the percentage of the population searching for a password reset, the average number of accounts per user that require passwords, and identification of the platforms where passwords are most frequently forgotten.

“The study also identified the most commonly forgotten platforms and analysed the average time between password resets in months, alongside the average number of online accounts managed per person, which can impact forgetfulness,” Psono said.

A composite score was then developed to rank the countries in terms of overall forgetfulness.

“The UAE ranked third with a composite score of 86.7,” the summary said. “The average time between resets is just 24 months, the shortest interval among all countries.”

For Luxembourg, which took second place with a composite score of 90.5, residents reset their passwords every 48 months.

“Gmail [in Luxembourg] is the most frequently forgotten platform,” the study said.

In addition to Gmail, other platforms and services like Facebook, Hulu, Xfinity and Microsoft Outlook where also determined to be particularly burdensome for passwords.

Despite advancements in facial recognition technology and fingerprint technology to some extent, passwords are still largely a major and in some cases, increasingly important part of the digital world.

Remembering the sheer number of passwords for accounts, and occasionally failing to do so, forcing users to reset, has become routine for many.

To minimise the work, some people will often use the same or similar passwords across devices and accounts, but that can result in security problems.

“Avoid using the same password,” said Sascha Pfeiffer, chief executive at Psono, who conducted the password forgetfulness study.

“Regularly reviewing and updating your passwords is also crucial,” he added.

According to a 2019 study by security firm Yubico, almost 11 hours are lost each year to resetting passwords.

That can add up in terms of worker productivity. According to Yubico, the estimated cost of productivity lost to password forgetfulness can average of $5.2 million annually.

Morey Haber, a chief security adviser at cybersecurity firm BeyondTrust, said he found the new study thought provoking, although not necessarily groundbreaking.

“I found it quite interesting, albeit not surprising, that public, free and social media domains like Gmail and Facebook are the most frequent services that people forget their passwords for, regardless of geolocation,” he said, before pivoting to other areas of the study.

“Another interesting observation is the average number of accounts per person is fairly constant across the globe, except for a few nations that have outliers that map evenly along a bell curve,” Mr Haber explained.

“That suggests that several nations do not embrace the internet for all its potential but use the same common services, like Gmail as everyone else.”

He also honed in on the study’s use of searches for the phrase "password reset", although not in the way that the study intends.

“It does suggest that users are not embracing private browsing sessions in their browsers to obfuscate sensitive searches and locations where password resets might be implemented,” he said, noting the sensitive nature of passwords.

“For all users, there is a simple lesson to be learned here — use non trackable private browsing sessions to ensure their locations are not tracked on the internet and cookies and password history is not stored on the local device. Keeping sensitive information away from Internet tracking services is always a good idea for safe computing.”