Crappy Passwords Very Common

KeatonMill writes "CNN released this story about passwords. Apparently, a group of UK psychologists did a study about password selection, and found that many passwords can be guessed if access to the subject's desk is allowed (the article gives an example of sports memoribilia representing sports-related passwords). According to the study, 50 percent of people use names of family members or pets as passwords."

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in a related story...

[Infonaut]

a recent 5-year study by scientists and researchers revealed that many people are bad drivers, and that a shocking percentage of people read books while driving.

This conclusion brings to mind the results of earlier studies that confirmed the following:

1) there are many people who get to the front of a long line at McDonald's and are still unable to decide what they want to eat.

2) many people, when given a choice between listening to Tiny Tim and Blues Traveller will in fact choose Tiny Tim.

3) a large portion of the population believes that Elvis is still alive in a bunker outside Las Vegas, and that he is in fact controlling world politics at the behest of the Area 51 aliens.

Sometimes, there's just no accounting for people. Bash them over the head with common sense, and they'll still go the other way.