It’s official, corporate passwords are cheap

Nearly 50 per cent of employees would readily sell their corporate passwords for less than £5, according to Ping Identity.

30% would do the deed for even less, happily giving up their corporate passwords for under £1. Only 29.55% of respondents felt that they would not sell this information for any price.

The One Poll study, which surveyed 2,000 consumers, highlighted that conversely 34% would demand upwards of £50 for a social media log-in such as their Facebook password, demonstrating that they put much more of a premium on their personal information than on that of their companies’.

The disconnect between one’s personal and corporate identity was further highlighted as 60.5% admitted to physically writing down their passwords and a third of people (34%) have shared their corporate password with others. In comparison, social media log-ins were more stringently protected, with 80 per cent not willing to divulge this password to others.

Respondents also said that the password easiest to remember is their Facebook log-in (34.5%) ahead of their work log-in (25%), a favourite online retailer account (10.6%) or their online bank (12.2%).

“The fact that personal identity is being rated higher than corporate identity has worrying implications for the safety of a business’ intellectual property and brand reputation,” said John Fontana, Identity Evangelist at Ping Identity.

“However, this research shows we are more comfortable and protective of our social networking passwords than anything else. Businesses wanting to attract and retain custom will need to allow consumers access to their sites though online identities we trust, rather than repeatedly getting us to enter our information again and again creating yet another unmemorable password that we place little value on.”