A new study by Okta finds that a proliferation of active accounts and web identities is exacerbating security risks both for individuals and enterprises.
Many individuals do not know how to account for, much less manage, their digital identities once they are stampeding in the wild, according to a new study.
Approximately 71% of respondents to a survey of identity and access management company Okta’s first Customer Identity Trends Report said they are aware that their online activities leave a data trail. Sixty-two percent of that group — 44% of respondents overall — reported that they have tried to manage their digital footprint.
For the research, the company polled 21,512 consumers across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia in August 2022 and February 2023.
The study said that given the strong competition for customer attention, “findings suggest that brands that want to build long-term customer loyalty should be transparent about what data is needed and how it’s used to power a private, secure, and convenient experience, and should provide customers with tools to manage their preferences.”
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Americans are frequently having trouble accessing their accounts, with over a third of Okta survey respondents saying that at least once a month they could not access an account because they forgot their username or password. On average, 28% of all survey respondents said they deal with forgetfulness by resetting their password or username.
In the study, 65% of Americans polled said they would be more likely to spend money when services offered a simple, secure and frictionless log-in process. However, 73% said they would compromise a frictionless user experience with a brand in order to have more control over data.
“Customers want frictionless, personalized, and instantaneous experiences when logging in to apps and making purchases; at the same time, they want to control what data they share, and they want appropriate security controls in place to protect it,” said Shiven Ramji, chief product officer for customer identity at Okta. “But, finding the right balance between these two can be a challenge: Some amount of friction is necessary both to establish trust and to provide necessary security controls that protect a user’s sensitive information and combat fraud.”
According to Okta’s study:
The majority (86%) of Americans believe that it is important that they have control over their data when interacting with a brand online and 65% said they are more likely to spend money if they know the log-in process is simple, secure and frictionless.
According to research by Okta’s Customer Identity Cloud (formerly Auth0) 83% of consumers have abandoned their cart or sign-up attempt because the log-in process was too complicated. Often, the culprit is a long-forgotten password.
The research also spotlighted the top pain points around registering and logging in to accounts:
More than half of Americans (53%) said that logging in to social media accounts with traditional username and password is the most convenient and secure way to interact with a brand online, followed by multi-factor authentication (42%) and passwordless login (38%).
The top three measures Americans take to protect their own data are:
Only 30% of those surveyed use a password manager to protect their own data.
For all industry verticals, the percentage of Americans wanting data control is above 80%. The majority (86%) of Americans said that it is important that they have control over their data when interacting with a brand online. Americans favored control more than the global average across every industry. The percentages, by vertical, of Americans who said they want control over their data are:
Ramji said individuals’ data sprawl has implications for enterprises.
“The more accounts a user has, the greater their exposure to data breaches — especially when many of those accounts are forgotten or otherwise not maintained (a consequence of account churn),” he said. “A breach to any one of these services may equip a threat actor with a huge volume of user credentials and associated personal data.”
Ramji said that given the strong competition for customer attention, brands that want to build long-term relationships with customers must be transparent about what data is needed and how it’s used to power a private, secure, and convenient experience.
“That is the basic requirement from consumers and something that shouldn’t be compromised,” said Ramji.
Karl is a lead writer on cloud security for TechRepublic, specializing in enterprise security risks, strategies, products, threats, trends and technologies for securing organizations. After graduating from Florida State University, he worked for the Tampa Tribune, and radio and TV stations in Tallahassee before moving to Boulder, Colorado. After receiving an MFA in dramatic writing from Brooklyn College he became a journalist and wrote for several years for publications covering the automotive, industrial chemical, internet tech and consumer marketing verticals. He has written for Adweek, Brandweek, The Chemical Market Reporter and MediaPost, and was also the public affairs officer at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering for six years prior to coming to TA.
