Like it or not, online accounts are now integral to our lives. The number of online accounts a person has directly corresponds to the chance of falling victim to a data breach or phishing attack. The latest Bitdefender Consumer Cybersecurity Assessment Report
took a close look at the average number of online accounts people juggle every day, and the survey results are surprising, to say the least.
Many traditional services that require direct interaction with people have transformed over the years into fully online services. We used to go to the bank for most operations, but now those activities are online. If we consider social media and online shopping, the number of active online accounts people use daily increases dramatically.
And then there’s a second type of online account that users might not always tally as relevant, which could be called a “throwaway” account. Need to buy a movie ticket online at a cinema you’ve never visited? You have to create an online account. Reserving a couple of seats at a new restaurant? Make an online account and forget about it the next day.
These accounts and the personal data associated with them remain on servers and are vulnerable to data breaches, even if we, as consumers, might not even remember creating those accounts. The survey considers what people report as active accounts, but that number could be more significant if we could tally throwaway accounts.
Most people live somewhere in the middle
It turns out that 35.1% of people have somewhere between three and five online accounts, which they use regularly. However, 30.9% of the users have between six and nine, which is substantially more.
On the other hand, the data reveals interesting habits for each country. For example, Spain has the fewest users with more than 10 accounts (3%), and the US sits at the other side of the spectrum with 6.6%.
Similarly, French users seem to be least dependent on online services, as 41% report having only one or two accounts. Australia has the fewest users with just a couple of online accounts, at 16.8%.
Age is just a number
Surprisingly, age difference is not relevant to the number of active online accounts. Whatever number our common sense might indicate, the reality is that people are not that different, and age can’t be used as an indicator.
The only significant change in behavior is that the number of people with 3-5 online accounts drops off as they get older. The change is offset by people over 55 years of age with more than 10 online accounts, almost double the number of people aged 16 to 24.
The Bitdefender Consumer Report underscores the importance of maintenance for online accounts. The sheer number of data breaches should keep people on their toes, especially since users have multiple active online accounts, and many reuse the same passwords from one account to another. Users should consider deactivating unused accounts and deploying software solutions such as Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection to keep an eye out for peoples’ digital persona and data breaches involving personal information.
The survey also showed that it’s essential not to use common sense when determining people’s online behavior by using age or nationality as a discriminatory factor. The reality is much more interesting.
Download the Bitdefender Consumer Cybersecurity Assessment Report