News
Women will give up passwords for chocolate
Andrew Wooden Apr 17 2008, 11:29am
Comments (5)
Females four times more likely to divulge sensitive data than males, if promised chocolate
A study by Infosecurity Europe has revealed that women are far more liable to give way passwords than men, as long as they are lured into doing so by free chocolate.
45 per cent of the women and ten per cent of men happily gave away their personal passwords to total strangers who pretended to be market researchers, using the promise of chocolate as an incentive for them to fill out the probing survey.
While this figure seems to highlight the worryingly high level of women who are willing to give up valuable data to anyone who presents them with confectionary, it should be noted that when a free holiday is thrown into the mix large amounts of both men and women jump at the chance to divulge sensitive information.
“Our researchers also asked for workers names and telephone numbers so that they could be entered into a draw to go to Paris, with this incentive 60% of men and 62% of women gave us their contact information”, said Claire Sellick, event director at Infosecurity Europe.
“That promise of a trip could cost you dear, as once a criminal has your date of birth, name and phone number they are well on the way to carrying out more sophisticated social engineering attacks on you, such as pretending to be from your bank or phone company and extracting more valuable information that can be used in ID theft or fraud.”
“This research shows that it’s pretty simple for a perpetrator to gain access to information that is restricted by having a chat around the coffee machine, getting a temporary job as a PA or pretending to be from the IT department,” continued Sellick. “This type of social engineering technique is often used by hackers targeting a specific organisation with valuable data or assets such as a government department or a bank.”
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Comments
“Give me chocolate”
Posted: Apr 17, 2:16pm
It's all true. I'm a woman working in the IT sector and I'd do virtually anything for chocolate. Who wants my password in exchange for a Dairy Milk?
“Re: Give me chocolate”
Posted by: Angela - Apr 17, 2:50pm
Yes, of course, we can resist anything but temptation
“Re: Give me chocolate”
Posted by: Trumanator - Apr 18, 3:50pm
I am married to a twixaholic so can totally relate to this latest newsflash. She has been through chocolate rehab and ended up coming down on chocolate hob nobs. Well...you have to start somewhere I suppose!
“Re: Give me chocolate”
Posted by: Kate - Apr 22, 10:54am
Yeah, I guess that means I'd give my bank account details, NI number, phone, PASSWORDS and just about anything for chocolate. Shocking! Who comes up with these stats?
“Re: Give me chocolate”
Posted by: Carrie - May 21, 8:40pm
Ladies,
I used to be like that.... I very occassionally am like that but I checked myself into my own 'chocolate rehab,' clinic and wrote a book about my serious, serious addiction..
It's out soon called Chocolate Rehab... it could really help you!! p.s It's not about giving it up completely it's all about balance.. yes really.. have a look at www.chocolaterehab.com... and your passwords might be safer in future...:) Namaste, Carrie Eddinsx