Back in February, Google launched its Password Checkup Chrome extension that warns users if their login credentials for any website have been involved in a data dump from other services. Judging from activity across the password management landscape this past year, we’re already seeing evidence of this trend. And as data breaches continue to impact more consumers, demand for password protection and management services across the spectrum will likely rise. Much of this growth will come from the enterprise, of course, but habits from the workforce often spill over into everyday life. Global demand for password management solutions in mobile devices amounted to $113.3 million in 2016, according to a report last year from Grand View Research, which estimates the figure will rise to more than $2 billion by 2025. Password management services aim to cut this problem off at the root by encouraging automatically-generated “unguessable,” passwords that are unique to each online service, negating the need for users to memorize or write them down. Poor password hygiene is a major driving force behind security breaches - particularly in businesses, where 81% of all breaches are said to be due to compromised passwords. This type of breach is just one reason password management apps are in such demand.Ībove: NordVPN’s NordPass password management app works with all the usual online services. A breach of just one of those services potentially compromises each of the other accounts that use the same email and password combination. There was nothing to indicate that this was related to the earlier server breach, however - it was most likely due to end users choosing basic passwords and reusing them across multiple online services. Two weeks later, a separate report found that thousands of NordVPN users had fallen victim to credential-stuffing attacks that led to unauthorized access of their NordVPN accounts. After the Hong Kong protests kicked off earlier this year, NordVPN reportedly became the most downloaded app across the region, spurred by reports that the government might start blocking key digital services, such as social networks, much the way Mainland China controls the flow of online information.īut NordVPN also faced controversy after reports last month detailed how hackers had breached one of its servers, potentially gaining access to encryption keys, though it’s not clear whether any damage occurred (beyond injury to the company’s reputation). NordVPN was founded back in 2012 and has grown to become one of the most popular VPN brands around the world, claiming some 12 million users globally.
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