"What is your favorite Internet password?" Wait! Don't answer that! It's a trick question — because you should be creating unique passwords for the various sites and service you use. For some reason though, one website seems to think otherwise.
The UPSJobs website doesn't have passwords at all; instead, it forces you to select a single sign-in question. UPSJobs "actually encourages you not to use a unique password, but instead to use a password that other people might be able to guess (such as the name of your most loved pet or movie)," says a report by security firm Sophos.
One such question, which made the Sophos folks chuckle disapprovingly, was the one above.
"You shouldn't have a favorite Internet password," says the Sophos researcher, explaining that proper security means having a distinct password for every online account you use.
"Oh, but I can be tricky and still have a secure answer! I'll just include a few random characters such as exclamation marks," you might be thinking right now, but a researcher at Sophos has some bad news for you:
It actually gets worse. When I first created a profile on UPSJobs, and tried to use a half-decent password (one that contained extended characters such as exclamation marks, and dollar signs), the site wouldn't accept it as my password.
Again, by refusing to accept a more complex password they were actively encouraging me to choose a simpler, easier-to-hack password.
Yikes! Time to rethink your security scheme, UPS!
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Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's obsessed with Twitter and loves to be liked on Facebook. Oh, and she can be found on Google+, too.