A recent cybersecurity study conducted by casino.org found that Wisconsin ranked last nationwide in password security, WKOW reports. The survey, conducted in September, asked 2,000 U.S. residents about their current password safety habits and created a weighted scoring system that considered:
- How often residents reuse a password for multiple accounts;
- What percentage doesn’t use a variation of a password for multiple accounts;
- What percentage uses auto-generated passwords;
- Whether or not their most-used password is 12 or more characters; and
- What percentage frequently updates their password every few months
Rhode Island scored highest with a perfect 100/100. Wisconsin achieved a score of 0/100. States including Alaska, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming were not scored due to a lack of data.
According to the study, 80% of residents say they reuse passwords for multiple accounts; 73.6% of all Americans say the same. Only 23.3% of Wisconsinites have a password length of 12 characters or more — the recommended character amount — as compared to 39.1% of all Americans.
