Nowadays nearly everyone has suffered from a bad attack of forgetfulness when a password is needed. The company computer. The home computer. Banking and ATM machines. Websites. Car and home security systems. The list goes on. It does not take long to accumulate a dozen or more passwords.
Writing them down on paper or simply using the same password for anything and everything is how most people deal with the overload. The negative aspect of this is that both ways make it easier for hackers（黑客） to attack computer privacy.
Researchers are now trying to do something about this by moving forward what may be an answer to the password puzzle: pictures.
Many companies are looking into various ways that images can be used to replace the standard, easily-forgotten letters and numbers. Pictures are much easier to remember. Researchers are also working on picture passwords that will make it more difficult for the average hacker.
Take, for instance, the screens available through a New York company, Pass logix. One picture shows a standard bar scene. The password is created by making up a drink from the various items pictured. The order in which the items are selected becomes the password. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, who have studied the habit of computer users say laziness plays a major role in most people's choice of passwords.
However, forgetting passwords is a common problem of the computer era. It's more of a problem than hacking, in fact, particularly for big companies that must seek help for their computer-using employees—often round the clock. How much does it cost a company each time an employee forgets a password? No one knows, but people who are pushing the picture passwords believe they will save companies a lot of money because recalling images is so much easier.
