The survey was undertaken by the organisers of Infosecurity Europe 2002 and the newly formed "human firewall Council."
The survey of 150 office workers found that the majority of them were more than happy to tell interviewers their passwords. Many were aware that the most commonly used password is the word "password". However, many respondents boasted about the origins of their own passwords, such as "my car - a Porsche Boxter", "my pet's name - Fred", "my country of origin - Finland", "my own name - Hattie".
More than half the respondents (51%) admitted that they would download company information if asked to by a friend. Similarly, 42% would be happy to tell their friends their company password. Sixty four percent of workers said they had given their password to a work colleague.
The majority of workers show little corporate loyalty when it comes to moving on to another job. Fifty four percent of workers would download contacts or competitive information to take with them to their next job.
David Blackman, Director of Pentasafe Security Technologies and founder of humanfirewall.org described the findings as unsurprising but said:
"As a pressure group we are doing everything we can to educate, campaign and learn from good practice to ensure that people are security conscious and respect their employers information."
The Infosecurity Europe 2002 conference takes place in London between 23rd and 25th April. For further information, see www.infosec.co.uk.
See also: www.humanfirewall.org