I almost put this in the "Work" category since password security is a part of my job. Instead, I made up a new category since the general subject is something in which I'm interested.
"Workers were asked a series of questions which included: What is your password? Three in four (75 per cent) of people immediately gave their password."
The other 15 percent gave it up after just a couple of leading questions.
"Of the 152 office workers surveyed many explained the origin of their passwords. The most common password was "password" (12 per cent) and the most popular category was their own name (16 per cent) followed by their football team (11 per cent) and date of birth (8 per cent)."
The methods used weren't very scientific but I think the results are probably pretty representative.
Slashdot put this story in their "Funny" category which tells you what computer geeks think.
Comments (1)
Hey, isn't it their first amendment right to give away passwords? Wait....they're British - they don't have the same Bill of Rights! Maybe it's in the Magna Carta* or something.
Seriously, I think people just don't get it. I wonder if we IT people - and including me as an IT person is using the broadest possible definition of "IT people" - just aren't making a strong enough case for keeping passwords private/changing them often/etc. We need a passionate password evangelist - like a Billy Graham, but for password privacy. :-)
* Note: That's supposed to be a joke, by the way. The Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta aren't really similar: the Bill of Rights is a guarantee of freedoms under the American system of government, while the Magna Carta is a big blathering discourse on magnets and carts or something. There might even be something in there about cricket.
Posted by Kevin | April 18, 2003 2:39 PM
Posted on April 18, 2003 14:39