Poor password “hygiene” far too common in Asia-Pacific: Google study

Setting up a security phone number or email address and 2-Step Verification (2SV) will dramatically increase your online security. 2SV decreases the chance of someone gaining unauthorised access to your online accounts.

Poor password "hygiene" is far too common in the Asia-Pacific region, with over 80% of respondents using the same passwords across multiple sites, with almost half recycling passwords for up to 10 unique sites, find a new study commissioned by Google.

The study conducted by YouGov on behalf of Google surveyed over 13,000 respondents aged 18 and above across Asia-Pacific, finding that 1 in 2 respondents use guessable passwords with easily-crackable combinations, such as significant dates, postal codes and names of partners or pets. Other key findings of the study include:

• Two in three respondents across Asia-Pacific have experienced a data breach or know someone
• Three in four people admit to making purchases on pages without a secure symbol, increasing the opportunity for fraudsters to steal details
• Half of the respondents share their passwords for streaming platforms, e-commerce sites and food delivery services with family and friends, putting themselves at greater risk of a data breach

Here is what Google recommends you to stay safe online:

Create a unique password

You need to make sure that each password is hard to guess and better yet, at least eight characters long. Use a password manager to help create, use and safeguard strong and unique passwords on all your devices.

Set up your security safety net

Setting up a security phone number or email address and 2-Step Verification (2SV) will dramatically increase your online security. 2SV decreases the chance of someone gaining unauthorised access to your online accounts.

Take the Google Security Checkup

Security Checkup provides personalized security recommendations to strengthen the security of your Google Account and it only takes two minutes to complete. It preemptively strengthens the security of Gmail accounts as people often use them to register with their banks, shopping sites, and payment services.

Enable HTTPS-first mode in Chrome

HTTPS is a secure and private way for people to communicate with websites. When enabled, your browser will show you a warning if a website doesn't support HTTPS.

Google also recommends ensuring that you're always running the latest version of software on all your devices.