Delinea, a provider of solutions that extend privileged access management (PAM), announced results from a survey taken last week during the 2023 BlackHat USA Conference in Las Vegas.
Results find that password security continues to be a highly relevant topic even as cybersecurity strategies move toward a passwordless future. Of 100 business hall attendees polled, 54 percent said “passwordless” is a viable concept, while 79 percent agreed passwords are evolving or becoming obsolete.
When asked how they protect their passwords, the majority of attendees surveyed indicated they use an additional authentication method to secure their credentials and identity.
Seventy-three percent said they use some form of multi-factor authentication (MFA), while 57 percent indicated they use an authenticator app and 40 percent use biometrics. More than half (52 percent) use a password manager while 34 percent use a PAM solution to store their passwords securely. One in five indicated they use passkeys instead of or in addition to passwords.
“The findings of this survey indicate an understanding of what passwordless means beyond just being a marketing term – specifically that it’s moving passwords into the background and using easier additional forms of authentication instead,” said Joseph Carson, chief security scientist and advisory CISO at Delinea. “This takes on increased significance when 75 percent of respondents also acknowledged that the fastest way to get access to a network is through social engineering or stolen identities and passwords. The quicker organizations and end users alike can evolve their identity and access security beyond passwords, the safer we’ll be as a society.”
The polling also revealed a perception that organizations are lagging far behind nation states and cybercriminals in the ongoing CyberWar. Only 12 percent of respondents indicated they believe organizations are ahead of countries and criminals.
The survey also uncovered a range of opinions about the threat of artificial intelligence (AI) programs, with 34 percent stating it’s still in its early days and current iterations are not truly AI while 22 percent indicated that an AI takeover is already here. Only 11 percent of those polled expressed confidence that AI will never take over.
BlackHat USA is an internationally recognized cybersecurity event providing technical and relevant information security research. Of the attendees surveyed by Delinea, 36 percent identified their role as a security team member, 21 percent as CIO/CISO/CTO, and 12 percent as IT team/administrators.
