Stripping girls don’t guarantee secure passwords

On the face of things, human nature being what it is, it sounds like it might actually work.

Encourage people (well, let’s be honest.. guys) to use stronger, more secure passwords by incorporating a graphic of a stripping woman.

Logo

The idea dreamt up by the developers at Platform45, and as explained by the chaps at TechEye, is that users are rewarded for choosing strong passwords by displaying a pixelated image of a woman who strips off more clothes the better the password.

Sign up to our free newsletter.
Security news, advice, and tips.

Before you start imagining that this might be somehow titillating, check out the animated graphic I made:

Animation of password being entered

Yes, this stripping woman is definitely a throwback to the 8-bit era of computing.

My beef with the idea is not whether the idea is chauvinistic or not, but rather whether it really helps with security.

A pixellated stripper might be enough to encourage you to use a more secure password – but does she take her clothes off too easily?

I tried a series of passwords on Naked Password’s demo page, only to be mightily let down by how easily the woman could be encouraged to strip down to her undies and beyond.

For instance, a dumb password such as “123456789” was enough to get her topless – but I certainly wouldn’t suggest that that is a strong or sensible password for anybody to use.

The idea of “Naked Password”, therefore, may cause some wry smiles in IT departments – but don’t rely upon it as a sensible way to encourage your staff to use better passwords.

If you do want to encourage more sensible password choices, watch this (non-naked) video I made describing how to choose a hard-to-crack password that’s easy to remember:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYzguTdOmmU&w=500&h=311&rel=0]

(Enjoy this video? You can check out more on the SophosLabs YouTube channel and subscribe if you like.)


Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "Smashing Security" podcast. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

What do you think? Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.