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How Do Experts Manage Their Passwords ?

Passwords pose a variety of problems for users: random passwords are difficult to create and hard to remember, and keeping track of passwords can be difficult for users who have many accounts. These problems can lead users to adopt sometimes insecure coping strategies [1] such as reusing passwords [2]. Little work exists on the security habits of experts, who must be affected by the same problems that affect all users. If remembering large numbers of random passwords is difficult or near-impossible for nonexpert users, it should be similarly difficult for experts. How do expert users cope with their passwords? Following on our earlier investigation of end users’ password management techniques and coping strategies [3], we became interested in the behaviour of expert and power users. How are the practices of those who are knowledgeable about computer security different from or similar to those of non-experts? We conducted a series of interviews with graduate students and researchers in computer security, asking them about their password management behaviour. We found that these knowledgeable users described a dichotomy of behaviour where they employed more secure behaviour on important accounts that they deemed more worthy, but employed similar practices to non-expert users on their remaining accounts. The goal of our interviews was to better understand the practices of expert users, and to see how they address the demands of creating and managing large numbers of passwords. Do experts rely on similar coping strategies as nonexperts? What kind of tools and techniques do they use? We hoped to find insight from the practices and coping strategies of experts that will help us form recommendations for non-experts.