![\"Ihate](\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Ihate-Passwords-2-2.jpg\" "\\"Ihate-Passwords-2.jpg\\"")
Got a message this morning on my phone, maybe from my phone, that I confirmed on my computer.<\/p>\nGot a message this morning on my phone, maybe from my phone, that I confirmed on my computer.<\/p>\n
Some Passwords Compromised!\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve seen the message before, and like most folks I ignored it!<\/p>\n
For some reason, this morning I actually looked at the message and the passwords that it claimed were compromised.<\/p>\n
A lot of the compromised passwords have come about because I\u2019ve merged the other half\u2019s passwords into my passwords. It makes keeping things running a lot easier to have it all on one computer rather than bouncing between two machines.<\/p>\n
The list was long\u2026 Some of it was easy to negotiate because there were duplicate logins. Once those were sorted out, then it was down to the business of changing compromised passwords. And here\u2019s where things just go right off the damn rails!<\/p>\n
I log into a site. Figure out where the hell the site has hidden change password. Account, Profiles, Client Access, security, or whatever other clever euphemism the company chose to use. It’s mildly annoying but navigable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I get to the change password option and things get super annoying! Enter the old password, then enter the new desired password, twice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“WRONG<\/span><\/strong>! You didn\u2019t include the right kinds of characters, or the right number of special characters, or not enough upper case characters, or numeric characters, the password isn\u2019t as long as War and Peace, that password is too long, 4 characters in the entered password have been used before on this account, or, or, or, or\u2026”<\/em><\/p>\n The annoying thing about this is there is almost never any description of what these assholes want, prior to making the first mistake.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve gotten to the point that I\u2019ll hit the submit button just to generate the error that describes what format is necessary for a password.<\/p>\n Because I\u2019m so often annoyed by this irritating bullshit, I use the internal password generator provided by Apple. The down side to this is sometimes even the Apple system can\u2019t generate something useable, but it stores what it generates almost instantly. Meaning that if the generated password is rejected, you may have a bad password stored in the autofill system and then you get to fight with both the password manager AND<\/strong><\/em> the asinine website.<\/p>\n This is how I end up with passwords or pass phrases that would make Marines blush.<\/p>\n This morning I was entirely surprised when I ended up in one of these circular password situations and resorted to using an obscenity.<\/p>\n Low and behold, the website told me that such words were offensive<\/em> and couldn\u2019t be used as passwords.<\/p>\n WTF?<\/strong><\/p>\n Who the hell are you to tell me what words I can and can\u2019t use for passwords? Furthermore what does it matter? The passwords aren\u2019t supposed to be stored on the site in plain text. They\u2019re supposed to be encrypted. No human is supposed to be able to read the passwords and therefore no human risks being offended. Are we dealing with computers now being offended?<\/p>\n I\u2019d rail and complain except I find myself caring less & less. This particular vendor, service provider, will not matter to me soon. Once I\u2019m out of California I\u2019ll be purging a ton of passwords, and phone numbers from my systems.<\/p>\n I\u2019m actually looking forward to that. I\u2019m looking forward to having a new phone number and a new address.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m also rethinking the whole web access thing, across the board. I\u2019d prefer to have everything mailed to my address. I\u2019d like to get things in my mailbox. Maybe , I\u2019ll be able to step back 50 years. I might start writing checks and mailing them to utilities. Then I won\u2019t have to deal with passwords, PINS, and poorly designed websites.<\/p>\n Who knows? I might even have the Sunday paper tossed on my porch instead of reading it on my pad.<\/p>\n Is this a function of age? Or is this my rejection of increasing complexity to do the simplest things?<\/p>\n Perhaps it\u2019s both!<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot to be said for de-computerization. You\u2019d have to really know me or be looking at that sentence through my eyes to grasp the full irony.<\/p>\n I wonder if the Amish would be willing to teach me how to live simply?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Got a message this morning on my phone, maybe from my phone, that I confirmed on my computer. Some Passwords Compromised!\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen the message before, and like most folks I ignored it! For some reason, this morning I actually looked at the message and the passwords that it claimed were compromised. A lot of … <\/p>\n