Report: Authentication Diary Study

Users have developed various coping strategies for minimizing or avoiding the friction and burden associated with managing and using their portfolios of user IDs and passwords or personal identification numbers (PINs). Many try to use the same password (or different versions of the same password) across different systems. Others use memory aids or technological assistants such as password management software. We were interested in these coping strategies and the ,friction pointsS that prompt people to use them. More broadly, we wanted to address a pressing research need by gathering data for user-centered models of how people interact with security as part of their daily life, as empirical research in that area is currently lacking.