Our View: Like passwords for chocolate - Storage Technology Magazine

Our View: Like passwords for chocolate

From the hall of marketing oddities comes a publicity stunt from Infosecurity Europe, which threw politically correct caution to the wind in April when it released the results of an experiment saying that women were four times likelier than men to give up their passwords in exchange for chocolate.

But that's just the hook that draws eyeballs to the press release, which contains more substantive (if alarming) facts about how willing people are to give out their personal information.

For example, 61% of people gave their birth date when told it would validate the findings, and researchers were able to ascertain that more than half of those interviewed use the same password for everything.

But we wonder if the results would have been more useful if the study had focused on money instead. That's often the true motivation for data breaches and, as far as we know, has no gender bias.


--Beth Pariseau

    Requires Free Membership to View

    When you register for SearchStorage.com, you’ll also receive targeted emails from my team of award-winning editorial writers. Our goal is to keep you informed on the hottest topics, the latest news and the biggest challenges you face as a storage professional today.

    Rich Castagna, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchStorage.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchStorage.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

This was first published in July 2008