Password fatigue – what is it and how to overcome it
Password fatigue is an overwhelming feeling that arises when a person has an excessive number of usernames and passwords to remember. Usually this is experienced by people who work in sensitive enterprise areas or with sensitive information, credentials and access levels. This means they must ensure they’re using unique and complex passwords to log in to sensitive systems become most prone to exhaustion.
What causes password fatigue ?
Password fatigue, or password chaos, develops over time. When a person understands (or is required by an authority) to keep up good password hygiene, the complexity and diversity of passwords become challenging to remember.
Most frequently, such requirements include:
- creating a non-default username (e. g. avoiding such usernames as admin);
- creating a new and unique password for each system or website;
- meeting complex password requirements – capital and lower letters, numbers, symbols, and special characters;
- never reusing the same password twice;
And, most importantly, remembering (or securely storing) each of these passwords.
Remembering hundreds of strong passwords – a serious daily obstacle
On average, each person has around 100 passwords to remember. Considering that these passwords must be complex, secure, and always unique (not used anywhere else), this becomes a real challenge. Unfortunately, most users and employees, exhausted by password fatigue, start looking for effortless, more doable solutions to overcome the chaos.
First, they tend to create shorter, uncomplicated, easy-to-remember passwords. In most cases, these passwords are semantically related to the system or the website they log in to. Naturally, this helps them to quickly recall a needed password and reduce that overwhelming feeling.
Second, even if they do create a password that complies with all the requirements, they are likely to store them all in an Excel sheet, Notepad app or a physical note – so they could find their password when needed .
Even though these two questionable “solutions” facilitate password management, they only make the problem bigger.
Knowing the password rules but not the tools make fatigue worse
The last but crucial cause of password fatigue is being familiar with all the password-related rules and the price it costs to disobey them and still doing so. Generally, people who are in charge of highly sensitive company’s and/or clients’ data deal with immense levels of frustration.
Such people feel severe password chaos because of the weight of the data that depends on them. And yet, the hands of such people are tied – they actually cannot do anything to overcome the problem. They do not have a solution.
What helps to overcome password fatigue ?
As always, the first thing that helps to overcome the chaos regarding passwords is recognizing the issue. According to a Ponemon Institute report, each person spends an average of 10,9 hours per year entering and/or resetting the passwords. Consequently, if this disproportionately large number decreased, so would the fatigue.
The most cost-effective solution to overcome password chaos is to start using a password manager such as PassCamp. The software works as a highly secure (and feature-rich) alternative to memorizing or using sheets and/or notes. The tool saves and stores all passwords in an encrypted vault that can only be accessed with a single Master Password. This immediately solves the secure password storage issue and improves the life of the user.
The password manager generates random, complex passwords (complying with the rules), automatically saves them, and fills them in whenever a user visits a website. Such tools, dedicated to strict password security and intuitiveness to use, immediately reduce password fatigue and shortens the time needed to remember, input or reset passwords.
