When the hacker group LulzSec hacked the Sony customer database and posted the passwords for 37,608 users the first response from media was “they did it again” but a further look at those passwords reveals a more frightening fact, most users still don’t understand or take the time to create strong password strings.
For example, only 4% of all the passwords revealed had three or more character types (symbols, capital letters, etc), in fact more than 50% had just one character type, such as lower case words or letters, while 90% of those who used one character also only used lower case letters for their entire password.
The password data mining also revealed that less than 1% of all users have a least one non-alphanumeric character in their password.
Finally, many users who used Sony accounts for their entertainment network and gaming network used the same passwords for multiple accounts.
[ Hacker News ]
