When it comes to choosing passwords for your online accounts, does it really matter if you’re a man or a woman? Does your hair color matter? Does having facial hair also play a part in choosing a strong password? Well according to a study based on security breaches at Adobe and LinkedIn, some rather interesting data has been collected and according to the results, it has been found red-haired women usually choose the best passwords, while men with beards and who generally look unkempt tend to choose the worst passwords. The study also found that in general, women prefer lengthier passwords while men might go for diversity.
The study revealed that the color of the logos on websites we frequent also impact the choice of passwords at times. For example Facebook’s logo is blue, while YouTube’s logo is red, so there are instances where users might introduce “blue” and “red” in their passwords. It was also interesting to find out that in a choice of 10,000 combination for a four-digit pin, 80% of our choices come from just a few hundred different numbers, making it easy for hackers to guess or crack our passwords. While we’re not sure if this is a definitive study on passwords, it certainly makes one think, and if you’re guilty of using easy-to-guess passwords involving colors, pet names, and birth dates, perhaps it’s time to make some changes!
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