1 in 4 Indians use weak passwords for online accounts: Report

At least one in four Indians still use weak passwords for their online accounts, while more than 55 percent change their passwords regularly, according to a new report on Wednesday.

A survey 'Digital Privacy and Password Management Habits' conducted by cybersecurity company Kaspersky also found that around 76 percent Indians use strong passwords for all their online accounts.

On the other hand 32 percent of the people allow browsers on the devices to save their passwords and the exactly equal number of people i.e. 32 percent never follow this practice, the report said.

"Password management is the easiest and the most important first step that the user has control over, and by following a few basic steps, users can avoid falling prey to cybercriminals," Stephan Neumeier, Managing Director for Asia Pacific, Kaspersky, said in a statement.

The survey also showed that only 11 percent people use one password for all their accounts, while more than half (54 percent) use unique passwords for all their accounts.

According to the company, 78 percent people create passwords themselves, 25 percent of the Internet users store their passwords on a document in their devices and only 17 percent of the people use a password manager to store all their passwords.

The survey revealed that around 44 percent of the people have no idea on how to check whether their password has been leaked and 5 percent said that they never change their passwords on their own (even if required).

This signifies that India as a nation is gradually becoming aware but yet needs to dedicatedly follow this path to cybersecurity awareness.

"The simplest way to keep your passwords secure is to regularly visit the 'Have I Been Pwned?' website and enter your email/account ID that you would want to check for data breaches and data hacks," said Dipesh Kaura, General Manager, Kaspersky (South Asia).