Half of Cybersecurity Pros Still Rely on Passwords Despite Security Concerns

A Yubico and Okta survey found many security professionals still rely on passwords and SMS-based MFA despite recognizing them as less secure, with low adoption of hardware-backed passkeys and password managers; organizations also use fragmented authentication and some do not mandate MFA. The report highlights a significant rise in AI-assisted social engineering—44% experienced at least one AI-driven phishing attack, 70% saw increased phishing, and 43% reported deepfake impersonations targeting executives—underscoring growing operational and threat-model risks from automated, scalable phishing and impersonation techniques.