Business-hall attendees polled at the 2023 Black Hat USA security tech conference agree that passwords are evolving or even becoming obsolete, according to privileged access management (PAM) software vendor Delinea.
Brad Shewmake, blogging for the maker of Secret Server, said that password security remains a “highly relevant topic” among cybersecurity professionals even though strategies are moving toward a “password-less future”.
“When asked how they protect their passwords, most attendees indicated they use an additional authentication method to secure their credentials and identity,” wrote Shewmake.
Seventy-three percent said they used some form of multi-factor authentication (MFA), with 57% choosing an authenticator app and 40% a biometrics-based offering.
About half said they use a password manager, with 34% relying on PAM to securely store passwords.
“One in five indicated they are using passkeys now instead of or in addition to passwords,” he wrote.
Joseph Carson, chief security scientist at Delinea, added that respondents indicated that “the fastest way” to access a network is to use a social engineering strategy, or simply to steal credentials.
“The quicker organisations and end users alike can evolve their identity and access security beyond passwords, the safer we’ll be as a society,” Carson claimed via the same blog post.
Black Hat is a global technical and information security research conference, with attendees hailing from security teams, the C-suite, and IT admin roles.
Delinea sells PAM into financial institutions, intelligence agencies, and critical infrastructure companies, with a particular focus on enterprises reliant on hybrid environments, including via the channel.
( Image by Achin Verma from Pixabay )
