Study on password security.

1. Conducted by Convios Consulting GmbH on behalf of mail.com
STUDY ON PASSWORD
SECURITY

2. Q1: How do you normally generate/create your passwords?
2
43%
12%
8%
11%
30%
I use personal
information such as
birthdays, names (e.g.
of pets) or car number
plates to create
passwords or choose
easy to remember letter
or number sequences
such as 123456
With the sentence
method (first letters of a
sentence that you can
remember)
With a password
generator
Other I'd rather not say
Global Average

3. Q1: How do you normally generate/create your passwords?
3
44%
13%
8%
11%
28%
I use personal
information such as
birthdays, names (e.g.
of pets) or car number
plates to create
passwords or choose
easy to remember letter
or number sequences
such as 123456
With the sentence
method (first letters of a
sentence that you can
remember)
With a password
generator
Other I'd rather not say
European Average

4. Q1: How do you normally generate/create your passwords?
4
I use personal
information such as
birthdays, names
(e.g. of pets) or car
number plates to
create passwords or
choose easy to
remember letter or
number sequences
such as 123456
With the sentence
method (first letters
of a sentence that
you can remember)
With a password
generator
Other I'd rather not say
UK 35% 9% 6% 10% 44%
USA 33% 9% 6% 11% 45%
France 54% 15% 8% 7% 20%
Germany 43% 16% 9% 12% 26%
Spain 51% 13% 9% 13% 20%
Austria 42% 11% 7% 13% 31%
Switzerland 41% 14% 9% 13% 28%
Country Average

5. Q2: Which of the following characters/elements do your passwords contain?
5
43%
40%
37%
14%
9%
29%
20%
Numbers Lower case
letters
Upper case
letters
Special
characters
Punctuation
marks
All of these
elements
I'd rather not say
Global Average

6. Q2: Which of the following characters/elements do your passwords contain?
6
45%
42%
38%
14%
9%
28%
18%
Numbers Lower case
letters
Upper case
letters
Special
characters
Punctuation
marks
All of these
elements
I'd rather not say
European Average

7. Q2: Which of the following characters/elements do your passwords contain?
7
Numbers
Lower case
letters
Upper case
letters
Special
characters
Punctuation
marks
All of these
elements
I'd rather not
say
UK 42% 37% 37% 10% 7% 22% 30%
USA 34% 32% 30% 15% 9% 33% 26%
France 47% 44% 39% 13% 7% 29% 10%
Germany 44% 42% 39% 16% 13% 32% 18%
Spain 43% 41% 34% 11% 7% 31% 13%
Austria 49% 47% 40% 15% 9% 26% 19%
Switzerland 43% 40% 38% 17% 11% 28% 20%
Country Average

8. 8
15%
31%
16%
19%
19%
Never
Every 6 months
Once a year
Less than once a year
Don't know
Global Average
Q3: On average, how often do you change the passwords for your most important
services (e-mail, social media, online shopping, online banking)?

9. 9
31%
16%
19%
16%
19%
Every 6 months
Once a year
Less than once a year
Never
Don't know
European Average
Q3: On average, how often do you change the passwords for your most important
services (e-mail, social media, online shopping, online banking)?

10. 10
UK USA France Germany Spain Austria Switzerland
Every 6 months 34% 38% 30% 37% 32% 26% 24%
Once a year 13% 16% 15% 15% 17% 19% 17%
Less than once a year 19% 17% 18% 19% 17% 22% 20%
Never 14% 9% 21% 10% 19% 13% 19%
Don't know 20% 20% 17% 19% 16% 21% 20%
Country Average
Q3: On average, how often do you change the passwords for your most important
services (e-mail, social media, online shopping, online banking)?

11. Q4: Which statement applies to you?
11
9%
18%
43%
20%
11%
I use one password for all services
I use one password for most services
I use several individual passwords for
some services
I use an individual password for each
service
I'd rather not say
Global Average

12. Q4: Which statement applies to you?
12
9%
19%
43%
20%
9%
I use one password for all services
I use one password for most services
I use serveral individual passwords for
some services
I use an individual password for each
service
I'd rather not say
European Average

13. Q4: Which statement applies to you?
13
UK USA France Germany Spain Austria Switzerland
I use one password for all services 5% 6% 10% 8% 14% 7% 11%
I use one password for most services 14% 13% 24% 12% 22% 19% 20%
I use several individual passwords for some
services
45% 39% 43% 46% 38% 45% 42%
I use an individual password for each
service
21% 23% 15% 26% 22% 18% 17%
I'd rather not say 14% 19% 7% 8% 5% 10% 10%
Country Average

14. Q5: Where do you usually store your password(s)?
14
67%
15%
9%
6%
3%
10%
I remember it On a piece of paper I use a password
manager
I save it in the
browser
Other I'd rather not say
Global Average

15. Q5: Where do you usually store your password(s)?
15
68%
15%
9%
6%
3%
9%
I remember it On a piece of paper I use a password
manager
I save it in the
browser
Other I'd rather not say
European Average

16. Q5: Where do you usually store your password(s)?
16
UK USA France Germany Spain Austria Switzerland
I remember it 69% 58% 70% 65% 75% 67% 63%
On a piece of paper 7% 15% 18% 18% 15% 17% 17%
I use a password manager 7% 9% 8% 9% 6% 8% 13%
I save it in the browser 3% 5% 8% 7% 6% 6% 4%
Other 2% 3% 2% 4% 2% 4% 5%
I'd rather not say 16% 18% 5% 9% 5% 9% 9%
Country Average

17. Q5: Where do you usually store your password(s)?
17
M F M F M F M F M F M F M F
USA UK France Spain Germany Austria Switzerland
I remember it 56% 59% 64% 74% 66% 73% 75% 75% 62% 68% 64% 69% 62% 63%
On a piece of paper 16% 15% 8% 7% 18% 18% 13% 17% 19% 18% 17% 18% 16% 19%
I use a password manager 12% 5% 10% 3% 12% 5% 9% 4% 11% 7% 12% 5% 17% 9%
I save it in the browser 5% 5% 6% 1% 9% 7% 7% 4% 8% 6% 7% 5% 6% 3%
Other 4% 3% 3% 1% 2% 2% 3% 1% 4% 3% 5% 3% 6% 4%
I'd rather not say 16% 20% 15% 17% 5% 6% 5% 5% 9% 10% 7% 10% 6% 13%
Gender Average

18. 18
 Convios Consulting GmbH analyses the communication behaviour of
internet users for mail.com since 2009. For the displayed study 1000
people per country were surveyed in Germany, Austria, Switzerland,
France, Spain, UK and USA.
About mail.com
mail.com is one of the top 5 free email portals in the USA. mail.com provides
its consumer and business users an unparalleled selection of more than 200
supplier-neutral email addresses with a broad variety of topics like business,
geographic location and personality traits. In addition to mail and messaging
products mail.com offers online file storage and presents worldwide news,
covering a large spectrum of content categories including entertainment,
politics, sports, science and many more. mail.com strives for optimum
performance with easy to use products as well as state-of-the-art internet
security and customer privacy with its data center located in Lenexa,
Kansas. mail.com is a member of United Internet, Europe’s leading internet
specialist.