Too Secure – With all of the internet security issues running around, passwords are a big issue, especially with any IT people. These passwords, used for data and file integrity and security, have ended up doing just the opposite. I bet that I have at least 100 different user id and password combinations. How can anyone (except maybe Jerry Lucas) remember 100 different combinations? You can try to use the same ones over and over, but each place has different rules. One software company says your password “must contain as least 4 letters, 2 numbers, and 2 special characters. Make your password something that you can remember.” Am I the only one that finds this to be an impossible task? Even “eat@joes” has only one special character and no numbers!! And if this wasn’t enough, as soon as you get to the point where you actually remember your password to something, you are prompted to change it! This makes me think of a new take on an old imponderable: “If God is all powerful, could He create a password that He Himself could not remember?” It’s almost that bad now.

You would think that this would enhance security. If you don’t know your own password, how will anyone else know it? But what happens is that I, and almost everyone I know, have to keep a list of user ids and passwords handy at all times. Many people put them in plain view for easy reference. Instead, why not offer a choice of either an unrememberable password or an opportunity to answer three questions to pass the security block. You don’t forget the town where you were born, or the name of your first dog, or your dad’s middle name. (Amazingly, some places prompt you to answer a predefined question so they can send you your password if you forget it!! Why not cut out the middleman?). So let’s stop making passwords something that you can’t remember and start making them something you can’t forget.