世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com recently reported on the results of a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Search into company intranet accounts and security. They interviewed 330 people from their monitor group on the 24th of January employed in the public or private sector. 94.8% were male (very high for them – it’s usually 80% or so, so I wonder if this is a misprint?), 17.9% in their twenties, 41.5% in their thirties, 32.4% in their forties, 7.3% in their fifties, and 0.9% aged sixty or older.

I’d have to answer “don’t know” to Q2 and Q3 too. Rather timely considering this survey, we’ve just had email from the IS team to say that the minimum password length for the intranet is being increased, plus it must contain at least one alphabetic and one numeric or symbol character, and from next month the password must be changed once every 30 days. As a bonus, we can also put a space character into it.

We have now at least four or five passwords between the user and the corporate network: desktops have BIOS password, Windows log in password, router password, and intranet password. For notebook computers it’s BIOS password, disk encryptor password, Windows log in password, wireless LAN smart card password, and intranet password. All these passwords are on different lifetime schedules, and of course most of them cannot be automated. All I can forsee is that the number of PostIt Notes around monitors will increase!

Of the 330 interviewed, 260 people, or 78.8%, had an individual mail account.

Q1: Do you remember your work mail account password? (Sample size=260)

Yes	75.8%
No, but have a note of it on paper	14.6%
No, just I call up the help desk when I need it	9.6%

I presume that the “yes” group includes those with it programmed into their mailer.

Q2: When someone leaves your company, after how long is their mail account deleted? (Sample size=260)

Within a week	31.2%
Within a month	12.3%
Within six months	1.5%
Within a year	2.3%
Just leave it there	1.5%
Don’t know	51.2%

Of the 330 interviewed, 240 people, or 72.7%, had an intranet account.

Q3: When someone leaves your company, after how long is their intranet account deleted? (Sample size=240)

Within a week	34.2%
Within a month	9.6%
Within six months	1.7%
Within a year	0.0%
Just leave it there	0.8%
Don’t know	53.8%