Millennials prefer biometrics to passwords

People are now prioritising security over convenience when logging into their applications and devices, according to a new IBM Security report.

The report also reveals that younger adults are putting less care into traditional password hygiene, yet are more likely to use biometrics, multifactor authentication and password managers to improve their personal security.

With millennials quickly becoming the largest generation in today’s workforce, these trends may impact how employers and technology companies provide access to devices and applications in the near future.

Overall, respondents recognised the benefits of biometric technologies like fingerprint readers, facial scans and voice recognition, as threats to their digital identity continue to mount.

The IBM Security: Future of Identity Study surveyed nearly 4000 adults from across the US, Asia Pacific (APAC) and Europe to gain insight into consumer viewpoints around authentication.

Some key findings from consumers include:

• Security outweighs convenience: People ranked security as the highest priority for logging into the majority of applications, particularly when it came to money-related apps.
• Biometrics becoming mainstream: 67% are comfortable using biometric authentication today, while 87% say they will be comfortable with these technologies in the future.
• Millennials moving beyond passwords: While 75% of millennials are comfortable using biometrics today, less than half of are using complex passwords, and 41% re-use passwords. Older generations showed more care with password creation, but were less inclined to adopt biometrics and multifactor authentication.
• APAC leading charge on biometrics: Respondents in APAC were the most knowledgeable and comfortable with biometric authentication, while the US lagged furthest behind in these categories.

The evolving threat and technology landscape have created widely known challenges with traditional login methods that rely heavily on passwords and personal information to authenticate our identities online. In 2017, data breaches exposed personal information, passwords and even social security numbers for millions of consumers. Additionally, the average internet user in America is managing over 150 online accounts that require a password, which is expected to rise to over 300 accounts in coming years.

“In the wake of countless data breaches of highly sensitive personal data, there’s no longer any doubt that the very information we’ve used to prove our identities online in the past is now a shared secret in the hands of hackers,” said Chris Hockings, CTO for IBM Security A/NZ.

“As consumers are acknowledging the inadequacy of passwords and placing increased priority on security, the time is ripe to adopt more advanced methods that prove identity on multiple levels and can be adapted based on behaviour and risk.”

Survey results around security, convenience and privacy contradict the long-held wisdom that ‘convenience is king’. While consumers have long been thought to prefer a fast sign-in experience with minimal friction, the survey results show that people rank security as a higher preference than privacy or convenience for the majority of applications — particularly for money-related applications.

Security was vastly ranked as the top priority for banking, investing and budgeting apps — for these categories 70% selected security as top priority, with 16% selecting privacy and 14% selecting convenience.

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