Invalid password
I think I may have identified another 21st century ‘illness’ – password fatigue.
This became apparent to me last night when, straight after locking myself out of my online banking for failing to remember the 11th digit of my 14 digit password, I then attempted to buy some tickets for the National Theatre and discovered that I needed to set up yet another account with yet another ‘unique’ password. I felt like screaming. Why can’t I just buy the damn tickets?*
I think I have at least 50 accounts which require passwords – from Amazon and our work’s Flickr page to this blog and the Barbican. Of course, they’re not all completely different and they have varying degrees of complexity, but this doesn’t make things any easier. I still have to remember which password it actually is and which complicated recipe of numbers and £$%£^’s I cooked up at the time. And the less I use the account and password in question, the harder it gets. God knows what my password for ebay is, its been that long since I used it, but I know I’ve got one.
Being a paranoid and cynical type of person who believes that identity muggers really do lurk around every corner, of course I never write any of them down. So all the passwords are residing in my head and as Betty Everett once sung ‘it’s getting mighty crowded’.
* ok, I work in marketing and I know exactly why they don’t allow this, but that’s not the point.
June 23rd, 2010 at 12:18 pm
We gave up years ago so there is a card near the PC with them all on – working on the principle that should anyone ever break in and nick the computer they could probbaly find them anyway, although they’ll never find the card in all the clutter on the desk. But I agree, it is so frustrating having to prove who I am all the time just to give money to people.
June 23rd, 2010 at 1:28 pm
There’s apparently something called ‘Keychain’ online which will store all your passwords for you securely. But you probably need a password for it.
June 23rd, 2010 at 1:51 pm
It’s one of the great bores of today. Our new email system requires you to change you password every 90 days. There are only so many memorable words I can think of. I’m running out of ideas.
June 23rd, 2010 at 3:32 pm
I’m not storing my precious passwords online – if someone hacks that site you’re completely done for! No, I’ll be going for Simon’s bit of paper on a messy desk solution well before then.
F-C, here are some memorable passwords for you: Supernaut, Skyhooks, ChristieAllen, MondoRock, BoomCrashOpera, Sherbert, ElectricPandas, TedMulryGang…
June 28th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
I’m with you on this one…. SO many passwords, and SOO many bloody rules. Minimum number of charachters… Maximum number of charachers, must contain at least one numeric, must contain at least TWO numeric…. GRRRR
Our passwords at word give me the right pip, must be 14 alpha-nemeric characters, be changed every month, and you can’t repeat one in a 2 year cycle! Geez I hate it when that little box pops up, it’s always when you are desperate to log in quickly too, and you are frantically trying to think of a memorable 14 character alpha-mumeric word (clue: there arnt any!).
Also this little box has the habbit of popping up a day or two before you go on leave, insuring that when you come back you can’t remember what it is…. A VERY dim view is taken of people who erite it down and passing it to someone else (even a manager) will have you hauled over the coals.
The password site to log your passwords sounds like a disaster waiting to happen!
June 29th, 2010 at 9:13 am
Yikes, I wish I used spellcheck on here, or at least re-read before posting….
June 29th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Piley, your work passwords sound like hell on earth for me. And not just because of my poor memory, I don’t think I have the creativity to come up with 14 character alpha-numeric passwords. Other than the old 800B7ESS type standbye from schooldays…. hmm…. You should take your works passwords as a compliment though – they must be reflective of very important work indeed!
June 29th, 2010 at 11:11 pm
We once bought a property that had, on the inside of the airing cupboard door, all the previous owner’s account numbers, sort codes passwords & password prompts written out in full longhand. Then again, I’ve been known to keep money in the fridge. I’ll get my coat.
June 30th, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Bloody hell John! I wonder if your former owner spent months wringing their hands, anxiously wondering just what kind of a chap you were. Or maybe they had SUCH a bad memory that they just forgot.
And I guess the fridge isn’t the first place a burgler would look for your spare cash…
July 1st, 2010 at 2:03 am
Don’t tell anyone, but I use the same pass for just about everything. There are minor variations here and there, but essentially, it’s the same pass. The full contents of my bank account to the first person who susses it out then……. ;)
July 1st, 2010 at 10:24 pm
Well, let me know when you come into some money and I’ll have a shot, Ill Man!
July 1st, 2010 at 10:50 pm
nah, they are just an evil employer who likes to see their staff struggle first thing in the morning trying to dream up impossible to remember passwords…
P
PS – how did you get on with Ghost World??
July 2nd, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Loved it Piley! In fact, I read it quite quickly, was entranced, then decided to rewatch the film and…. it’s not half as good as the strip is it?! Apart from Steve Buscemi of course – whom I will hear nothing bad about.
I’m now reading Alison Bechdel’s ‘Fun House’ which is fabulous – beautiful, literary and quite touching.
July 2nd, 2010 at 10:22 pm
Oh I LOVE the film Cocktails! Was worried sick when I heard they were making it, but I thought it was a great job, and somehow managed to take the strip a little further without ruining the book. Clowes was ‘on set’ every single day, and ensured it remained ‘true’ to his original ideas.
I read Fun House a few years back…. erm, we’ll have that discussion when you’ve finished it!
P
July 13th, 2010 at 10:51 am
I have a system – it sort of works… I then note a single number beside any account in my list and I should in theory know the password… however somewhere I got confused and sometimes the list says 5 and it should be 6 and I’m screwed… Oh and the family all know the bloody system so it is about as secure as wide open stable door with welcome mat 6ft wide!
One of my tasks now I’m a man of leisure (redundant!) is to dream up a new system and go back and update them all… :-)
July 13th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Hello Futheron. This system sounds interesting. Is there some sort of cryptic, memorable link between the number and a password? ie. 7 indicates password no.7 which is say, ilovekeithrichards, or is it less obvious than that?
And well, maybe you’ve also confused your family as well – so the system is safer than you think!
July 14th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
No it is as obvious as that pretty much – well there is a phrase with some numbers and characters thrown in and the number refers to the variations of them – and no they have sussed the combinations! :-)