A year after the emergence of the Heartbleed OpenSSL bug, half of Britons have still not changed any passwords, according to research from the security vendor Dashlane.
This is despite advice from a plethora of security experts, who warned that widespread password reuse had left people vulnerable even after the affected websites had patched their systems.
Emmanuel Schalit, chief executive at Dashlane, said: "Everyone in the digital world needs to know that they are their own first line of defence when it comes to online security.
"Much work remains in educating the public about the dangers that exist online. Attacks such as Heartbleed are becoming more commonplace, and larger in scale, and it’s critical that everyone is aware and educated about the threats as they affect all of us."
The Heartbleed bug was a flaw in the OpenSSL security layer that allowed hackers to sit between a user and a web server and eavesdrop on the conversation, potentially putting sensitive data at risk.
Though websites such Facebook, Google and Yahoo hastily patched the flaw it was soon found that it had existed for a good two years, providing hackers with ample opportunity to exploit it.
Dashlane’s research established that a mere 6% of those using the top 100 sites on the web had changed their passwords, and that more had altered their credentials on the social network Tumblr than PayPal, a payments merchant.
"There is without a doubt a role for governments and technology companies to play in making the online world safer for everyone," Schalit said.
"But the benefits these organisations can provide are marginal if you are not educated about the threats that exist and the actions you should take personally."
Since Heartbleed fears over password security among the industry have only grown, with many companies working to bolster their systems with two-factor authentication, in the form of bank card readers and temporary codes sent to users.
Others have sought to develop replacements to the password in the form of biometric security, with Apple seeking to roll out such technology on its latest iPhone releases.
