Men usually set 'password' as their password, while women prefer their lover's name.

A recent survey has revealed the differences in passwords between men and women.

Photo: EPC Group.

Cyberattacks and data breaches have become increasingly common in recent years. Yet, despite this, it seems that people's password management habits have not changed much. Security researchers continue to lament poor password choices like "123456."

Recently, technology consulting group EPC Group released a new survey that showed the difference in passwords between men and women. The survey was mainly conducted in the US.

Accordingly, men tend to use the word "password" as a password 2.8 times more than women. Although "password" is constantly in the group of dangerous passwords that should not be used, men seem to prefer this unsafe choice.

Women, meanwhile, tend to have more diverse passwords and are 1.5 times more likely than men to use four or more words when creating a password. The most common words women use when creating a password are the names of their significant other or pets, and the least common are social security numbers.

Photo: Jacob Ufkes/Unsplash

“Thirty-three percent of respondents did not use any of their typical personal information when creating a password. Less than 37 percent of respondents admitted that they only change their password when a website asks them to. About 16 percent said they change their password every quarter, while another 10 percent said they never do so,” the EPC said.

Despite strong advice from experts and researchers about storing passwords securely, 43% of respondents said they still write their passwords down on paper to remember them, 36% lock their password lists in a safe, 13% write their passwords down on a password-protected document, and about 8% save them on their computers.

EPC states: "Password security is essential to protecting your identity and protecting yourself from risk. Be sure not to use personal information when creating a password, do not share your password unless necessary, do not save it on your computer, and remember to change it regularly.".

According to Tuoitre