Saturday, July 13, 2013

Too Many Passwords!



How many have you forgotten so far?

It's bound to happen you know. Just ask yourself how many emails you're maintaining (e.g. one for work and another for personal emails, etc.). Think too of the many accounts you have in social media. There are so many sites that matter to us personally and they too, verify our identity! That's not to mention the more important ones like the bank (how many again?), and utilities, and school and others.

Many smart people have been trying to solve this problem without giving up on security. None so far has given us a real solution.

What have you tried? Did you try to use the same password for all accounts? Sometimes they work, most of the times they don't as for example sites don't have the same validation for passwords. Some require four digits (they're still alive!), some 8. Newer and security conscious sites require combinations of letters and numbers, and some even require non-alphanumeric characters! Plus the small letter and capital letter combination!

Think too that these sites force us to change our passwords! It's a real hassle I know, but you can't do anything about it - it's for security reasons!

Don't forget some sites require two password combinations, and too, some even use an additional layer using a device that generates random numbers (are they really random?) outside of the original password. What's going to happen if you lose your number generator and it takes the institution (usually banks) ages to send you a new one? It's difficult to imagine...

So what are we to do? Most of us do things that compromise security. You'll find some passwords jotted down on cards (think of your ATM), in a tiny piece of paper in the wallet, stored in the mobile phone too! How could you do this? It's laziness sometimes.

If you're so sure you can remember all the passwords that you use without using anything, just the plain old noggin, then think too what's going to happen if you get into an accident and forget everything! Oh gosh, there's just nothing that we can do that is full proof.

So, we just that what we need to do...hopefully someday something will come to solve this very simple yet confounding problem!

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