Passwords – is the end nigh?

I was recently out with friends when the conversation came round to passwords. How many passwords do you have, I was asked? Of course, you do use separate passwords for your various e-mail accounts, social site log-ons and e-commerce sites, and you do change them regularly – don't you?

Well actually I don’t and it seems I am not alone. Despite the advice of many experts, most of us use the same one or two passwords for everything, because it is simply too difficult to remember dozens of different ones.

Worse, many people use common words as passwords or words that are relatively easy for a hacker to discover. Your mother’s maiden name is still the most likely choice of Internet password, according to research and many of us still use the word ‘password’ as the password. Other common passwords are a pet’s or child’s name.

The problem is that passwords are meant to be easy to remember but hard to guess, which is easier said than done. Some recent TNS research showed that almost one in three of us have forgotten their password after signing up for an online service and as a result have decided not to use that service again. This means that this issue has big implications for businesses too. Are we perhaps seeing the end of the password era – especially as now it seems that the UN has become involved? According to a UN agency report undertaken by The International Telecommunications Union, the number of passwords and log-ins Web users need makes it inevitable they will re-use phrases. The ITU goes on to call on regulators and businesses to find better ways for people to identify themselves to websites.

Until then, we all need to use a modicum of common sense and only sign up for those sites that we believe to be trustworthy with proven security and try to remember to change our passwords regularly.

Why consumers could be more secure

• One in ten still regularly use the word ‘password’
• One in four use their mother’s maiden name
• 15% use a pet’s name and 10% a child’s name
• Only 3% use a random password

TNS/OneVu 2007

Miles Quitmann, Director, OneVu, November 2007

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