OK, what’s more important to you: your password or your chocolate habit?
A study in London found that a disturbing number of people would give up their computer passwords for a chocolate bar (121 of 576 subway riders, or 21 percent, at London’s Liverpool Street Station). Apparently this is an improvement, because last year 64% preferred the chocolate to their computer security! The study also found gender made a difference: 45 percent of women, compared with 10 percent of the men, gave up their passwords (Hey! C’mon ladies!). Of course, as my coworker pointed out, the chocoholics may be giving up bogus passwords. I certainly hope so!
This is yet another gem brought to my attention by my iGoogle science news tab. It was a “News Bytes of the Week” item at the Scientific American web site.
