---
title: 'Like, Ghirardelli, or What?'
date: '2004-04-20T16:36:40-04:00'
permalink: /like-ghirardelli-or-what/
tags:
    - internets
---

We’re discussing [Cryptonomicon](http://www.booksense.com/product/info.jsp?affiliateId=PlannedObsolescence&isbn=0380788624) right now in the [Big Novel](http://sax.pomona.edu/weblogs/LM) class,[^1] and so information security is at the top of many of our minds. Imagine my amusement, then, when one of my students forwarded me this [Enterprise IT Planet](http://www.enterpriseitplanet.com/security/news/article.php/3342871) story:

> Out of a small sample of 172 office workers that were approached on the street, more than a third (37%) willingly divulged their password when simply asked, according to Infosecurity Europe 2004’s organizers. Sadly, a large majority — a full 71 percent — forked over the information when bribed with chocolate.

Mmm-hmm. Stephenson’s links between contemporary hackers and World-War-II-era soldiers begin to make all that much more sense.

[^1]: Or at least those of us allowed to get out of bed are. (The whininess, you will note, is not passing.)