Passwords Are the Weakest Link In Online Security 277
Orome1 writes "It's not surprising to find that 79% of consumers use risky password construction practices, such as including personal information and words. The recent Gawker breach and a detailed analysis of breached passwords show undeniably that passwords continue to be the Achilles' heel of the average Internet user. This insecure trend sadly doesn't shift as 26% of users reuse the same password for important accounts such as email, banking or shopping and social networking sites while 29% had their own email or social network account hacked, and over half (52%) know someone who has had a similar problem."
Re:gpg-authentication? (Score:4, Informative)
You obviously not had to deal with the average user. I run a web site that has accounts and many non-tech users and many people can't even understand the concept of password let alone asking them to upload a public key. I regularly get complaints that our site isn't "user friendly" because the person can't manage to even remember their username... so anything that is even slightly more complicated or involves something that they don't deal with in every day life it's right out.
Re:WRONG (Score:4, Informative)
Close. Journalists are the weakest link.
Most of the stuff that's password-protected isn't worth anything.
A Gawker account? How much does having that hacked that cost me?
A lot less than the time it takes to tell a journalist that it didn't cost me anything.