Nearly a quarter of people (23 per cent) polled in a survey by Symantec use their browser to keep tabs on their passwords. A survey of 400 surfers by Symantec also found that 60 per cent fail to change their passwords regularly. Further violating the 'passwords should be treated like toothbrushes' maxim (changed frequently and not shared), the pollsters also found that a quarter of people have given their passwords to their spouse, while one in 10 people have given their password to a
Password choices were also lamentably bad. Twelve of the respondents admitted they used the phrase 'password' as their, err, password while one in ten used a pet's name. The name of a pet might easily be obtained by browsing on an intended target's social networking profile.

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