Tuesday, July 19, 2011

iPhones: Common Password Usage Risks

iPhones: Common Password Usage Risks


In the current climate of news about the use of PINs/Passwords to gain unauthorised access to mobile content and voicemail accounts, an interesting study published by an app developer identifying common iPhone passwords. The article identifies the ten most common pin/passwords determined from the study:


"Formulaic passwords are never a good idea, yet 15% of all passcode sets were represented by only 10 different passcodes (out of a possible 10,000). The implication? A thief (or just a prankster) could safely try 10 different passcodes on your iPhone without initiating the data wipe. With a 15% success rate, about 1 in 7 iPhones would easily unlock--even more if the intruder knows the users’ years of birth, relationship status, etc." most common iphone passcodes

Whilst password predicability may not be ground breaking news, this study just might be a useful insight that highlights that iphone mobile phone users appear to make predictable choices when selecting a pin/password and may persuade users to look more carefully at their choice of handset pin/password in current use.

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