Only Five Percent of Users Have Non-Letter Characters in Their Passwor

[JMH]

Only Five Percent of Users Have Non-Letter Characters in Their Password

A survey conducted by antivirus vendor BitDefender revealed that only five percent of people use digits or special characters in their passwords and that sixty percent use single-case-only access codes.

The conclusions are the result of a questionnaire taken by 1,000 random individuals, half men, half women, from 16 countries, with an average age of 29.5 years.

The questions attempted to determine passwords strength and habits and were individually explained to respondents in a live interview.

Results revealed that 67% of users have more than five password-protected online accounts, with one in four having six accounts and almost one in three having seven or more.

Meanwhile, 73% of respondents said that they reuse the same password, a bad habit that security experts have tried to change for years.

The practice poses serious problems, since some accounts hold more value than others. For example, an online banking account is clearly more sensitive than a social networking one.

More -
Only Five Percent of Users Have Non-Letter Characters in Their Password - Softpedia

 

[EzioAuditore]

Thanks for the info JMH. No doubt why identity theft has become so common.I just wonder how difficult it is to use numbers and symbols and case variation that people run away from it.. *sigh*

 

[Imperfect1]

Several years ago, when we all first starting using passwords for on-line sites as well as other security purposes (i.e. telephone banking access, etc.) I was very cavalier about the password issue, and really was more interested in making it easy for myself, than anything else. So, I used the same password for everything and the password was very simple. Now, several years later, after having had my Hotmail email site hacked once, my PayPal account hacked once (and PayPal is supposed to be uber-uber-secure) and my credit card identity stolen twice, I have finally learned my lesson!!! No more easy passwords. No more easy access to my accounts -- and I am taking every other security protection that I can. This is serious stuff folks. Hackers are very sophisticated nowadays, and it is only going to get worse. Protect yourself!

 

[CarlTR6]

Good article, Jan. I am in the 5%.

 

[EzioAuditore]

Several years ago, when we all first starting using passwords for on-line sites as well as other security purposes (i.e. telephone banking access, etc.) I was very cavalier about the password issue, and really was more interested in making it easy for myself, than anything else. So, I used the same password for everything and the password was very simple. Now, several years later, after having had my Hotmail email site hacked once, my PayPal account hacked once (and PayPal is supposed to be uber-uber-secure) and my credit card identity stolen twice, I have finally learned my lesson!!! No more easy passwords. No more easy access to my accounts -- and I am taking every other security protection that I can. This is serious stuff folks. Hackers are very sophisticated nowadays, and it is only going to get worse. Protect yourself!

Oh that's terrible.. Hoping for you not to face any such trouble again ever..And regarding the topic, the easily availability of ready to use hacking kits have made the matter worse, forcing the wanna-be hackers and scriptkiddies to adopt this path, which in turn increases the overall security issues and these hacking activities...

 

[pparks1]

I'm a member of the 5% club.

 

[Imperfect1]

I'm a member of the 5% club.

Needless to say, now I am too!

 

[Petey7]

I'm in the 5% when it comes to my password for the majority of the sites I use. I use a uniqe password for banking, school-related, and other important sites. The password I use for my wireless network has only letters, but it is also 22 characters long with a few capital letters in it.

 

[EchoX860]

All lowercase word with 3 numbers that I use for everything

 

[Mercurial]

3 numbers+ all lower case atleast 15 digits letters on each account = safe !

paypal
msn
facebook
etc.. XD!

my password on seven forums is only 5 digits though lol!

 

[madtownidiot]

On the computer that has my business records and other important info: bios startup PW, HDD PW, 20+ digit trucrypt PW, 20+ digit account password, 2048 bit encryption on the RAID array.

 

[marsmimar]

Maybe this is old news to most, but I got away from passwords a while back. I decided to use an easily remembered (for me) pass-phrase instead and reduce it down to upper/lower case letters, numbers and special characters. For example, the phrase "A quick brown fox jumped over one lazy dog" could be reduced to: @qBfJO1Ld. Make your own pass phrase as long as you want for added security and customize it for each website by adding a prefix, suffix, or something in the middle. Again as an example, for this forum I could add w7F or W7f and my password could be @qBfJO1LdW7f. Just some food for thought.

 

[Petey7]

On the computer that has my business records and other important info: bios startup PW, HDD PW, 20+ digit trucrypt PW, 20+ digit account password, 2048 bit encryption on the RAID array.

Oh I forgot to mention my BIOS password. Also different from any other password I use. I only have one because laptops and other electronics get stolen at my school from time to time and if it happens to my computer, I really want to the person to be annoyed when they try to use it.

 

[madtownidiot]

Account passwords don't matter if you don't encrypt important files (or the entire system) and lock the BIOS and the HDD with a password.. especially with a laptop. It takes about 10 seconds to boot nearly any laptop into linux with a USB flash drive (which will bypass any account passwords), then start copying files to an external. (which is probably part of the reason the university uses MacBooks) Very few people have the skill needed to crack a bios password protected HDD. Even that isn't always going to prevent a thief from simply replacing the HDD, resetting BIOS and reinstalling windows, but if you use bitlocker, combined with the more secure encryption in truecrypt, and don't keep the backup keys stored anywhere near the laptop itself.. at least important files won't be compromised. I doubt anyone outside of law enforcement or the NSA would know how to crack a truecrypt protected HDD without the recovery key.

 

[NoN]

Maybe this is old news to most, but I got away from passwords a while back. I decided to use an easily remembered (for me) pass-phrase instead and reduce it down to upper/lower case letters, numbers and special characters. For example, the phrase "A quick brown fox jumped over one lazy dog" could be reduced to: @qBfJO1Ld. Make your own pass phrase as long as you want for added security and customize it for each website by adding a prefix, suffix, or something in the middle. Again as an example, for this forum I could add w7F or W7f and my password could be @qBfJO1LdW7f. Just some food for thought.

I guess i build mine on that way either, telling myself inside a "real stupid" sentence to remember, making my own pass.

 

[madtownidiot]

close your eyes and type a password with your fingers deliberately on the wrong keyboard row. (only works if you learned the wrong way to type and always use the left shift button.)

 

[NoN]

close your eyes and type a password with your index fingers deliberately on the wrong keyboard row. (only works if you learned the wrong way to type and always use the left shift button.)

Can yu post an example?

 

[madtownidiot]

8e0h53f3hih02j60qww204e =
idontevenknowmypassword

 

[NoN]

(only works if you learned the wrong way to type and always use the left shift button.)

humm...i can't have it working

 

[madtownidiot]

(only works)

humm...i can't have it working

I should clarify. It will only work intuitively if you learned the wrong way to type and always use the left shift button. It will still work if you know how to type without looking at he keyboard but don't always use the left shift key exclusively. Closing your eyes while you type makes it less likely the you will hesitate and try to correct the "error". It can be done while you're looking at the keys, but that increases the likelihood of creating a password you'll never be able to duplicate even if you remember the phrase it's based on because of the semiconscious tendency to automatically aim for the key you're thinking of as you type it.

another way is to have just one hand on the wrong key row

then you get:
IDontEvenKnowWhatMyPasswordIs =
IEon5#f3nKno2@hqrMyPqww24eIw or
*D0htEvejIh0wWyatJ6)assw0rd*s