Access and authentication: the big Reg survey

Reg Reader Studies Regular participants of our Reg reader surveys will know that the titles which head our light tappings upon the IT barometer are not the stuff of literary legend. Sadly, this month's effort is not much better - "Access and Authentication Technologies: Issues, practicalities and solutions" - but this pot-chilling effort should not put you off chipping your two bits' worth in to our latest probe.

As the name suggests, this survey is all about how people get access to systems and programmes - or don't, as the case may be. Questions include "Do external users such as suppliers and customers have access to any of your systems where authentication is required?" and "How many applications do you have that require authenticated access?" so you can see straight away what specifically this is all about.

It's the usual drill: give us around 10-15 minutes of your valuable time to complete the survey. The data is submitted anonymously, so no need to worry about data protection or El Reg selling your email addy to pump'n'dump share spammers.

One last thing - the people who put together this survey say they need at least 150 responses per country from the UK, US, France, Germany, The Netherlands and Italy.

It's got something to do with demographics, apparently. Of course, all input from around the globe is heartily welcome, but if you are sitting in Rome or Amsterdam, take a bit of time to encourage your compatriots to help us out. We gather that hungry, mewling infants chewing on the last of the raw potato peelings may be the end result of a failure to deliver this vital data. You get the picture.

And how will we know where you come from? There's a drop-down list in the survey, naturally. Be aware that while the Northern Mariana Islands are rather splendidly in there (as is something called the "United States Minor Outlying Islands" which may or may not include the UK), the Isle of Man still doesn't feature. Sorry about that.

Oh yes, you can get right down to it here. Thanks very much for your time. ®