God, Love, Sex, Money

No, this is not a come-on for some kind of internet scam; these are the four most used passwords on the internet today.

According to the CERT/CC (Computer Emergency Response Team/Coordination Center), a federally funded organization based at Carnegie Mellon University, an estimated 80% of all network security problems are caused by bad passwords.

I thought this was especially chuckle worthy since the very same observation was made in the often criticized film (by computer geeks anyway) "Hackers". The reason people tend to use "easy" passwords is not rocket science. The fact is that increasingly, we have so many systems that require an identity it can overwhelm anyone (particularly CEOs).

This is why Identity Management solutions are increasingly becoming as important to organizations as anti-spam and anti-spyware software. There are still a number of people, security professionals included, who seem to be convinced that simply training users to invent more secure passwords is an effective strategy. But the enlightened security professional realizes that "Educating Users" is # 5 on the list of Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security.

Hat Tip Mike Wendland