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Password/PIN Challenges

I need passwords at work. I need passwords at home. When I go on vacation I need to remember the pin for the hotel room safe. Alas, the only place I find solace from the pressure to remember a password or pin is when my posterior is planted on the toilet. Come to think about it, I find solace from a lot things there (YO, stay focused Royboy).

Remember the old “Little Rascals” series? The kids had a clubhouse, and the only way to gain entry was to give the ‘secret password’ when challenged. Then there’s the old movies of the days of prohibition. To gain entry into a speakeasy, you had to go to a shadowy door, knock, and be gazed upon through the peephole by a burly guard, who in a gravel voice would ask, ”What’s the passwoid?” Ah, those were the days; perhaps in your entire lifetime you may have had to recite one or two passwords. Not so anymore.

Typical scenario: I recently went on-line to a web site that required a PW. I forgot the password. After answering the requisite security question, I read that the new temporary PW would be mailed to my email account. I need a PW to get into the email account which I fortunately remember. I then go back to the original web site, log on using the new password and I’m quickly prompted to change the temporary password. I change the password and then decide I need to document the new PW so I don’t forget or misplace it again. I open my secret file with another password and add it to the burgeoning list. Sound familiar?

I guess I’m a typical 21^st century citizen challenged by all the passwords I have to manage. For the first time, I went about counting all the passwords and pins I have to track. I was surprised that I counted 30! And oh yes, many of those must be changed periodically.

I was required recently to take an Air Force course on Information Security. In it we were adjured not to write down any passwords. My eyebrows were seen to curl incredulously. Just think about it, you can hardly accomplish the most routine of actions without knowing a PW or PIN. This is getting to be too much! Remember the best seller by Alvin Toffler titled “Future Shock”? In the book the author postulated that technology was advancing so fast that there would be a segment of our society that would experience “Future Shock” because of their inability to adapt. Let me tell you, I’m shocked by all these passwords, pins and codes.

Just a couple of closing thoughts. You and your spouse should devise a clandestine system for the other to be able to access your password/pin stuff in case of the worst. Finally, I’m encouraged by the emerging biometrics technology. I just read that IBM is coming out with a laptop that scans your fingerprint to replace passwords. I’ll take a retinal or thumb print scan anytime over the 30 PW’s and pins, thank you, but I’ll pass on the skin implants; there are already other things under my skin.

6/14/05

Roy Resto - VP Technical Operations, FAA-DAR
Phone: 414 875-2191   Fax: 414 875-0200
royboy@mbtrepair.com

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