The survey was undertaken by the organisers of Infosecurity
Europe 2002 and the newly formed "human firewall Council."
The survey of 150 office workers found that the majority of them
were more than happy to tell interviewers their passwords. Many
were aware that the most commonly used password is the word
"password". However, many respondents boasted about the origins of
their own passwords, such as "my car - a Porsche Boxter", "my pet's
name - Fred", "my country of origin - Finland", "my own name -
Hattie".
More than half the respondents (51%) admitted that they would
download company information if asked to by a friend. Similarly,
42% would be happy to tell their friends their company password.
Sixty four percent of workers said they had given their password to
a work colleague.
The majority of workers show little corporate loyalty when it
comes to moving on to another job. Fifty four percent of workers
would download contacts or competitive information to take with
them to their next job.
David Blackman, Director of Pentasafe Security Technologies and
founder of humanfirewall.org described the findings as unsurprising
but said:
"As a pressure group we are doing everything
we can to educate, campaign and learn from good practice to ensure
that people are security conscious and respect their employers
information."
The Infosecurity Europe 2002 conference takes place in London
between 23rd and 25th April. For further information, see www.infosec.co.uk.
See also: www.humanfirewall.org
