Digital security: often heard - never used: protective measures on the Internet

Published on: September 7, 2018 / Updated on: September 7, 2018 – Author: Konrad Wolfenstein

Digital Security – @shutterstock | iperion

+++ Often heard of – never used: Internet security measures +++ One in four never changes their passwords +++ End-to-end encryption hardly used +++

Often heard of – never used: Internet security measures

While around 90 percent of Germans are aware of the advantages of password managers, they are actually used by less than a quarter of the population. The situation is similar with other security measures that should be used if one values ​​high security in the digital world . While email encryption methods like PGP or S/MIME are still used by almost a third of those surveyed, biometric identification is relatively unpopular. Around a quarter of Germans use features like fingerprint scanners, which are now available on most smartphones.

You can find more infographics at Statista

One in four people never changes their passwords.

Email accounts, Amazon accounts, and Facebook profiles: the internet offers a multitude of services that require passwords. Most people struggle to remember a new login code every time. Changing passwords regularly for security reasons is simply too much of a hassle for most – as a recent study by YouGov .

According to the survey, 26 percent of Germans never change their passwords for internet services. Sixteen percent of respondents stated that they change their access codes once a year, and 15 percent do so every six months, as the Statista graphic shows.

IT security experts recommend complex passwords with a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters, as these are not so easy to crack. However, such codes are particularly difficult to remember. Therefore, half of Germans (51 percent) write down their online passwords so they don't forget them.

You can find more infographics at Statista

End-to-end encryption is hardly widespread.

Three-quarters of German internet users consider it important to be able to encrypt emails so that only the recipient can read them. This is according to a recent survey commissioned by WEB.DE and GMX . However, only around 16 percent of those surveyed actually use end-to-end encryption. But why do online users forgo securing their communication? 37.6 percent find the procedure too complicated. A similar number say they simply don't know how to do it.

You can find more infographics at Statista