While it would be a gross, and borderline sexist, generalisation to say that women would do almost anything in return for chocolate, a new European survey has revealed that a great many members of the fairer sex would at least be willing to trade their online security for the opportunity to gorge on a slab of velvety brown temptation.
Women only too happy to divulge personal security information for chocolate. Credit: Koyochi/Flickr.
Moreover, a recent survey of 576 office workers carried out under the guise of market search by Infosecurity Europe has discovered that, when it comes to the sexes, women are far more likely to divulge personal security information to complete strangers when a chocolate bar is dangled before them as incentive.
The social engineering exercise, which was conducted outside Liverpool Street station in London to raise awareness about information security, found that 45 percent of women -- against only 10 percent of men -- were prepared to bow to chocolaty temptation and fill out password information into a bogus questionnaire.
That being said, Infosecurity Europe notes that its latest survey is a vast improvement on similar studies carried out in previous years. For example, in 2007, 64 percent of respondents were prepared to exchange password info for a chocolate bar, while 2008’s total percentage was just 21 percent.
However, while the percentage of those handing over password information has fallen, the 2008 study uncovered that more than half of the participants were guilty of relying on the same single password for multiple uses, i.e., banking, work access, and e-mail.
The study also revealed that far too many people are seemingly willing to inadvertently risk serious ID theft when asked to provide their names, telephone numbers and dates of birth for survey validation and entry into a fake prize draw.
61 percent of those asked to do so revealed their date of birth, while 60 percent of men and 62 percent of women were only too happy to hand over their contact information, said Claire Sellick, Infosecurity Europe’s event director.
“This is precisely the problem,” outlines Sellick regarding the susceptibility of the public when faced with the supposed authenticity of the fake research team members, “whether a criminal approaches you on the street or online, they will often not be who they appear to be, a criminal can often look very presentable.”
Learn more by clicking here to visit the official Infosec Web site.
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