In the ‘Permacrisis’ Era, People Are Getting Lazy With Workplace Security

Another day, another word added to the lexicon to underscore our dismal state of affairs.

Joining doomscrolling(Opens in a new window) and nomophobia(Opens in a new window) is permacrisis. This “extended period of instability and insecurity,” as defined by the Collins Dictionary(Opens in a new window), is what many of us have been feeling throughout the pandemic and other global calamities. But it’s not just an existential crisis; it can have ramifications for workplace security, too.

1Password commissioned Method Research to survey 2,000 US and Canadian adults last fall, split evenly between genders and balanced across age groups, and found(Opens in a new window) that 79% of people in the workplace feel unprecedented stress on any typical day. One in three are report that they are more stressed than they’ve ever been before.

Forty-five percent of those who claim they’re experiencing permacrisis distraction—caused by the pandemic, inflation, and personal relationships, among other things—say they don’t bother with all of their workplace security rules. Only 29% of those who say permacrisis isn’t affecting them say the same. The main security slip-ups include doing the bare minimum, reusing passwords, and not believing bad habits have an impact.

The problem appears to be more intense for younger workers (87% for Gen Z compared with 70% for boomers).

The good news from the survey is that more and more people in the workplace are aware of scams, and they have a healthy fear of being the person to cause a security breach. Thus, more of them are using security tools.

Three-quarters of those surveyed said a password manager helps make things easier; 70% said the same about a single sign-on solution; and 55% said the same about using biometrics. They trust multi-factor authentication more than they trust biometrics and forced password resets (good, those are terrible). Single sign-on services are trusted the least.

Who’s to blame people if they don’t maintain the necessary security habits, though, since no one ever seems to get in trouble?

Maybe the most shocking thing here is that only 10% of those surveyed are using their work devices for a side gig or other job.

For a lot more on how the permacrisis world we live in is impacting the workplace, read the full report at 1Password(Opens in a new window).

4 easy things you can do to be more secure online — Clarification Please