Study on kids' passwords shows gap between knowledge of password best practices and behavior

guest · Aug 11, 2021

Study on kids' passwords shows gap between knowledge of password best practices and behavior
August 11, 2021
https://techxplore.com/news/2021-08-kids-passwords-gap-knowledge-password.html

Children may seem more technologically savvy because they've grown up in the digital space, but they still face the same cybersecurity threats. So, to shed light on what kids understand about passwords and their behavior in creating and using them, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducted a study that surveyed kids from third to 12th grade.

The study found that children are learning best practices, such as memorizing passwords, but are demonstrating a gap between their knowledge of good password practices and their behavior. The NIST researchers present their findings today at a virtual cybersecurity conference called USENIX Security Symposium 2021.
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"Younger children rely on parents a lot. Their first passwords were either given to them at school or by a parent to open their phone or tablet. So, what kind of guidance can we provide?" said NIST researcher Yee-Yin Choong.

But despite the evidence that kids are learning best practices, they also demonstrated bad password habits. They tended to reuse passwords, a habit that increased in frequency from elementary to high school students, and shared their passwords with their friends.
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Not many studies have been performed on kids and cybersecurity, said Choong, which is why this work could be significant in helping researchers understand more about kids' password use.

"This was a very carefully designed study. We had to think carefully about the methodology," said Choong. Researchers contacted the principal of each school first to gain school support for the research, she said. They also worked with the teachers in getting parental consent and administering the surveys.
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NIST: NIST Study on Kids’ Passwords Shows Gap Between Knowledge of Password Best Practices and Behavior

Paper: M. Theofanos, Y-Y. Choong and O. Murphy. ‘Passwords Keep Me Safe’ — Understanding What Children Think about Passwords. 30th USENIX Security Symposium 2021. Aug. 11, 2021. https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity21/presentation/theofanos
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