According to a recent article in ZDnet News, most people's passwords can be cracked pretty easily. In addition, according to one recent survey, four out of five people would disclose their passwword to someone in the company who asks. Worse, two-thirds of the workers polled at a train station in London willingly gave their password to the pollster.

Complicated, frequently changed passwords bring their own problems, however. Users forget them, have to write them down some place, and have to call support for help getting into systems that have locked them out. Researchers are experimenting with graphical passwords, extended single sign-on, smart cards and biometrics to find a balance between high security and actually using the system.