As I said over on Bluesky, I’m in password hell. This morning, I sat at my new work computer and started to punch in my old hospital password without thinking. It is not my new password. I also have new user names to learn IDs and my poor brain is suffering! We are not made for this mess!
Whew. Too much truth here! The darned password instructions read like parody: 8 digits, 12, 16. Make sure you don't use: Anything personally associated with your life, family, home, last year's taxable income, or shoe size; anything with whole numbers or the Roman alphabet; anything you have used elsewhere or yesterday or ever before. And above all else, do NOT write today's precious 57-bit trilingual strong password in a godforsaken paper notebook! That would be .... human. Sigh.
I struggle to log in to ANYTHING these days without several attempts. I don't write passwords down because of the security risk, and for years now I haven't been using the same password for everything, which is what I used to do. Instead I use password software, and still passwords drive me nuts. Did I even SAVE that password in the app, or is it only in my Safari settings? Or my head? They're all unique and they're all impossible...
I find it absolutely crazy when people share details online which might be useful to those with bad intentions - their dates of birth, car registration numbers (past and present), house numbers or postcodes - the bad guys out there are always fishing for those in case you've used them for your banking app password.....
An address book is a great place to log passwords. Also old phone numbers make good PINs. And yeah, transferring letters on a keypad to the number equivalent to spell out something.
I live in constant fear and dread of passwords. I keep mine in a small notebook, too, and on the backs of obscure business cards I can hide in my wallet, and, for the really important ones, I take pictures of those notebook password pages so I'll have them on my phone. Not the safest place to keep them, but those pics have come in handy more than once when I'm on the road without my notebook.
Then there are those times when the password I KNOW is the right one is rejected. Oh, the suffering! I live for those times when my browser asks me if I want it to remember my password. Unless it involves real secrets or real money, I'm all in.
When my cybersecurity professional husband first came a-courting 13 years ago, he was sitting on my couch one night and asking about the WiFi network and password for his phone. There was a distinct chill and pause when he asked, “Are..are you ‘linksys’?” “Yeah.” “What’s your password?” “I dunno, what it came with?” “.....ADMIN?!?” I think he married me out of professional obligation.
“the final five digits eluded me like Cylon skin-jobs embedded in a Colonial fleet”. Hahaha I love this!! We just started rewatching the series again recently. Our favorite show of all time.
A most amusing piece, Mark. But I should point out that the serpent found itself kicked out of Eden when its proteges were, and has been trying to get back in ever since, so we might hope for an unexpected ally there. After all, as Nietzsche said, 'The devil is the oldest friend of knowledge'. The virtual passes partout are a good anti-Alzheimer's study, so they have their uses.
As I said over on Bluesky, I’m in password hell. This morning, I sat at my new work computer and started to punch in my old hospital password without thinking. It is not my new password. I also have new user names to learn IDs and my poor brain is suffering! We are not made for this mess!
Growing pains, grasshopper. Growing pains.
Whew. Too much truth here! The darned password instructions read like parody: 8 digits, 12, 16. Make sure you don't use: Anything personally associated with your life, family, home, last year's taxable income, or shoe size; anything with whole numbers or the Roman alphabet; anything you have used elsewhere or yesterday or ever before. And above all else, do NOT write today's precious 57-bit trilingual strong password in a godforsaken paper notebook! That would be .... human. Sigh.
I want an actual key that unlocks everything, also!
I struggle to log in to ANYTHING these days without several attempts. I don't write passwords down because of the security risk, and for years now I haven't been using the same password for everything, which is what I used to do. Instead I use password software, and still passwords drive me nuts. Did I even SAVE that password in the app, or is it only in my Safari settings? Or my head? They're all unique and they're all impossible...
I find it absolutely crazy when people share details online which might be useful to those with bad intentions - their dates of birth, car registration numbers (past and present), house numbers or postcodes - the bad guys out there are always fishing for those in case you've used them for your banking app password.....
Well said!
An address book is a great place to log passwords. Also old phone numbers make good PINs. And yeah, transferring letters on a keypad to the number equivalent to spell out something.
I live in constant fear and dread of passwords. I keep mine in a small notebook, too, and on the backs of obscure business cards I can hide in my wallet, and, for the really important ones, I take pictures of those notebook password pages so I'll have them on my phone. Not the safest place to keep them, but those pics have come in handy more than once when I'm on the road without my notebook.
Then there are those times when the password I KNOW is the right one is rejected. Oh, the suffering! I live for those times when my browser asks me if I want it to remember my password. Unless it involves real secrets or real money, I'm all in.
And what a mess there is when I had a unique password and only added different icons or various capitalizations at the end for the multiple sites!
Yes, that was a popular method at one time!
When my cybersecurity professional husband first came a-courting 13 years ago, he was sitting on my couch one night and asking about the WiFi network and password for his phone. There was a distinct chill and pause when he asked, “Are..are you ‘linksys’?” “Yeah.” “What’s your password?” “I dunno, what it came with?” “.....ADMIN?!?” I think he married me out of professional obligation.
I don't know which one of you is luckier!
“the final five digits eluded me like Cylon skin-jobs embedded in a Colonial fleet”. Hahaha I love this!! We just started rewatching the series again recently. Our favorite show of all time.
A most amusing piece, Mark. But I should point out that the serpent found itself kicked out of Eden when its proteges were, and has been trying to get back in ever since, so we might hope for an unexpected ally there. After all, as Nietzsche said, 'The devil is the oldest friend of knowledge'. The virtual passes partout are a good anti-Alzheimer's study, so they have their uses.
Fair point!