# FIDO and Imprivata survey: frontline authentication friction costs 32,400 hours a year

Source: https://startwithidentity.com/blog/2026-10-19-fido-and-imprivata-survey-frontline-authentication-costs-32400-hours-a-year/
Last updated: 2026-10-19
License: content by Start with Identity. Cite the source URL.

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The FIDO Alliance and [Imprivata](https://startwithidentity.com/vendors/iga/imprivata/) released "Frontline Friction: The State of Authentication for Frontline Workers" on October 19, a survey Sapio Research fielded in August 2026 among 700 IT and security decision-makers in the US, UK, France and Germany, 325 of them in healthcare. 37% say frontline workers hit an authentication problem in a typical month, losing about 2.5 hours each, which the report puts at 32,400 working hours a year for an organization of about 2,800 frontline staff. 95% have seen workarounds: staying logged in (40%), bypassing MFA or other controls (36%) and sharing credentials (33%). Only 40% are very confident they can attribute frontline access to the right person. 62% report unauthorized account-recovery or password-reset attempts, and 60% report social engineering against the service desk. 28% use passkeys or FIDO credentials, but only 15% without a password.

## Why it matters

Shared kiosks and shared logins break the basic identity promise: you cannot say who did what. Friction causes the sharing, so stronger factors bolted onto slow logins make it worse. The 13-point gap between passkey use and passwordless use is the other finding to note: a passkey next to a password still leaves the password for attackers and help-desk resets.

Fix the reauthentication path first: fast tap or proximity sign-in on shared devices, short sessions that hand off cleanly, and [passkeys](https://startwithidentity.com/glossary/passkey/) or security keys bound to each person. Then retire the fallback password, and harden recovery, since that is where 62% already see attacks. Our [help desk social engineering](https://startwithidentity.com/techniques/help-desk-social-engineering/) brief covers caller verification. Note that Imprivata sells frontline access products; the numbers are survey responses, not measured logs.

Source: [FIDO Alliance](https://fidoalliance.org/authentication-issues-cost-frontline-organizations-thousands-of-working-hours-each-year-according-to-research-from-imprivata-and-fido-alliance/)