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Few Gmail Users Enable Two-Factor Authentication.
Cybersecurity is an ongoing problem, with critical flaws and weaknesses ranging from ongoing research into how best to break fundamental aspects of CPU architectures to users perennial terrible choice of passwords. All in all, it’s not a cheerful situation, and new data from Google doesn’t exactly improve things.

In a presentation at Usenix’s Enigma 2018 security conference, Google engineer Grzegorz Milka revealed that less than 10 percent of Gmail users have two-factor authentication enabled and just 12 percent have a password manager installed on their browsers. Given the high-profile security failures of password managers, including LastPass, I can’t exactly blame people for not using them — it’s not as if they’ve got great reputations — but using password managers is one way to create strong passwords that have less chance of being cracked.

The Register notes that this actually squares up with what the majority of its readers thought, with 82 percent correctly picking the 10 percent or less figure. Milka’s response as to why Google didn’t require two-factor authentication is telling.

“The answer is usability,” Milka told The Reg. “It’s about how many people would we drive out if we force them to use additional security.”