…that we are either too simple-minded, ignorant or just plain lazy to care about our own security – here’s another example.
It’s a well-known phenomena that people tend to choose simplicity over security when selecting their passcodes – from internet passwords to iPhone PINs.
I have an improvised “research” of my own. Here’s how it works – my local gym provides mini lockers for the members to put their valuables in – car keys, wallets, cellphones etc. The lockers are based on three digit (rolling 0..9) codes. The member first dials a combination of three digits, then turns the door’s knob, and finally scrambles the combination so that it is locked. Unfortunately, way too many of them forget about scrambling the code after they take their valuables out and leave. How do I know that? I am just guessing from quickly browsing the combinations of all the open locks. The recurrent observation: in 3 out of 4 cases the combination is something extremely easy to remember – either A,A,A (where A is the same digit) or A,A+1,A+2. I could bet their smartphone pins are probably very similar, too (if I only could verify that hypothesis 😉 ).
Now, the gym I am a lucky member of is frequented by upper-middle class (it’s enough to look at its parking lot to estimate the average income of the fitness fans), young and middle-age professionals who are supposed to be more intelligent and open-minded than the average Joe is. Yet, not only they fail to come out with a pin which is slightly more sophisticated than a 5-year-old would think of, they also are careless enough to leave it “open to public” after they used the locker.
Not that you’ll find it particularly shocking anyways…