Would you trade your password for a candy bar?
January 8, 2010 by Sam NarisiPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Security
Apparently, a lot of people would.
A company called Infosecurity Europe hired attractive, well-dressed agents to pose as market researchers.
They went to a busy London Train Station and asked hundreds of commuters to provide their passwords, date of birth and other private information. In return, the commuters would get a chocolate bar.
The results were mind-bogging: 45% of the women gave their passwords while 10% of men did the same. Make what you will of the gender differences (maybe woman are more trusting, or the men would respond better to a pint of ale than a candy bar), but the casualness with which 21% overall of office workers treated their private information is pretty upsetting.
Here’s the kicker: These results are far better than they were a few years ago. In a previous study, 64% of interviewees in a similar survey gave up their passwords for a chocolate bar.
Other findings in the 2009 survey:
- 61% of interviewees revealed their birth dates.
- Over half stated that they use the same password for all their accounts.
- Over half said they knew at least some of the passwords of their fellow workers.
- A-third claimed they knew knew their boss’s password, or how to obtain them.
Social engineering is a major secutity risk for your company. Training employees to understand the importance of managing and guarding their passwords is the key–- this survey show ow easy it would be to get access to critical data –- a smile, a suit and a bar of chocolate.
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Tags: candy, Infosecurity, passwords
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January 13th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
The number may not reflect the real picture though – trade a makeup password, a fake birth date for a candy bar is a pretty good deal. You don’t know what percentage of the survey results is from this group.