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.

Tags: candy, Infosecurity, passwords