Password Fatigue

They've recently put a keypad on the door of the staffroom so that you have to tap in the right combination of letters and numbers in order to open the door. Security, don't ya know. So this left me standing there like an idiot frantically trying every combination I could think of till some youngster came by and did it for me, "it's very easy just ....." Yeah, I know it's very easy. They are all very easy but there are so damn many of them especially if, like me, you work at more than one place and have a problem remembering even your own date of birth.

I've had the same 4-digit PIN for a decade now but I embarrassed myself totally by forgetting it at the crucial moment at the supermarket checkout last week. (No, it's not my DoB) They tell you not to write these things down but I may have to get mine tattooed on my forearm as I get older and my memory deteriorates still further. With any luck the flab and wrinkles will disguise it.

I thought I was just thick, dozy or 'having a senior moment' but it seems that in fact I am a victim of password fatigue. See the article below courtesy of Kerry Maxwell.

Pass through the office security door – enter correct code. Log on to the company computer system – enter password. Buy lunch at a local restaurant with your debit card – enter PIN. Open your front door and disable the alarm – enter password. Check out your bank account online – enter password and PIN. Purchase something on Ebay® – enter username and password ... And so it goes on. If your head is regularly spinning each time you have to summon up those all important sequences of letters and digits, then you could be suffering from password fatigue.



Information technology is the driving force of modern life. Its influence is no longer restricted to the workplace but impacts on all other aspects of our day too – how we shop, eat, travel, manage our finances, find things out, entertain ourselves. But all this convenience opens up security risks which we have to protect ourselves against. We need a virtual padlock, and a virtual key to open it – the ubiquitous password. Research suggests that if someone is a fairly intensive computer user then they’ll have at least 20 online accounts, and possibly many more. And for each, they may need to know a password. Wearily trying to remember them all, they become sufferers of password fatigue.

Please tell me I'm not the only one with this problem.

RTA

I've been feeling somewhat unsettled all day. It doesn't take much to upset my equilibrium, any life-threatening experience will do it.

Last night I had the misfortune to be involved in an RTA. For those of you who aren't glued to 'The Bill' every Saturday night perhaps I should explain that RTA is UK copspeak for road traffic accident.

As I am here to tell the tale you can guess that I escaped unscathed. Not so the vehicle which will shortly be taking a tour of the western suburbs workshops. Lucky for me, it wasn't my car and I wasn't driving but an unnerving experience nevertheless.

For the last ten weeks I've been teaching an evening class twice a week and sometimes getting a lift home with a colleague who lives round the corner. Last night as we drove through the city we met a car coming the other way that had decided to turn right from the centre lane without pausing to see if anyone else had right of way. YES! ME! YOU IDIOT! I HAVE A GREEN LIGHT AND I DON'T EXPECT TO FIND ANY OTHER CAR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE JUNCTION! Well, that would be the general gist of my thoughts at the time but at the moment of collision it was nicely condensed to a mere four letters.

The headlights were smashed and as my door wouldn't open I had to climb out over the driver's seat but no one in either vehicle was injured. The other driver claimed to have had a green light and I imagine she did for going straight ahead in the centre lane but I think it unlikely that she had a green filter arrow for turning right. Who can say? With no other witnesses it will be for the insurance companies to argue over.

Such an event makes you think about what you'd regret not having done if you were prematurely terminated. My response was fairly predictable: hang the diet - I went out for a very large chocolate ice-cream.