Letter: You’ll need a password to buy that sandwich
Wednesday 16th February 2011, 6:00AM GMT.
Letter: At a time when we are encouraged to shop online rather than use the high street – and indeed it is invariably cheaper this way – am I the only person to notice how increasingly difficult it is to buy goods and pay bills without the need for passwords, six-figure pin numbers and being told to choose from a list of personal questions (eg. what is the Christian name of your first husband/wife?) all in the name of security?
While I am not yet in the “silver surfer” bracket, I am certainly of an age where I can remember how we all seemed to muddle along quite well without any of this, thank you very much.
I understand the need for caution due to identity fraud but the trouble is we are expected to use a different password and pin number for each of these online schemes and simply commit them to memory, having been warned of the dangers of writing them down.
Now my memory isn’t what it used to be and as I have 32 different online accounts for one thing or another, I’ve been forced to double up on some of them.
I think the crunch came when I visited a sandwich shop in Shrewsbury and was asked if I would like to start collecting points with a loyalty card towards free meals and drinks.
“Just go online to the registration form and fill in the details,” said the girl, smiling helpfully.
As I am one who has an eye for anything free, I duly complied only to find (yet again) the same old passwords, user names and pin numbers syndrome. I object to doing this all for the sake of a “free” baguette.
It will not be long before we have no need to leave the house, as we’ll be able to shop, work and perhaps even be spoon-fed into obesity with just the aid of a computer.
Mind you, with all the security questions, we won’t have time for anything else.
Name and address supplied
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“..we are expected to use a different password and pin number for each of these online schemes and simply commit them to memory, having been warned of the dangers of writing them down.”
This silver surfer would like to point out that your anonymous correspondent has overlooked a simple solution to this problem, namely entering the various account details in a spreadsheet that is protected by a password, so s/he will only ever need to remember one.
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All good and well until flummoxed by impending doom and the password needed to open said spreadsheet is hurled to the back of your memory.
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Simply write the master password on a Post-it note and stick it to the monitor.
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I think your letter will strike a chord with many people. It’s one of the hassles of modern, online life.
There are a few things you could do to make life a little simpler; here are some suggestions.
- Decide on a small number of passwords (e.g. 3) that you will use frequently. Divide them into categories of high, medium and low security. Make sure that each password is sufficiently cryptic to satisfy the various requirements (e.g. contains a mixture of upper and lower case letters plus numbers and one or two punctuation marks). Use the high security password for a very limited number of sites e.g. online banking, the medium password for a handful of other sites, e.g. Amazon, Ebay, etc. and the low level password for everything else.
- Use some kind of “password locker” software. This will encrypt and store your passwords and ask you for a master password. Whenever you visit a web site, you can enter the master password and the software will retrieve the details and auto fill the boxes for you. This way, you only have to remember one password.
A general tip for any passwords… avoid using dictionary words. Don’t think for a second that replacing the letter “e” with a “3″ makes it any more cryptic (e.g. “egg” and “3gg”). Your passwords are generally encrypted when they’re stored by third parties, but if a malicious hacker gains access to the master password file they can run a “dictionary attack” against each entry. Passwords that are formed from dictionary words and proper nouns can be cracked in fractions of a second. Longer passwords take longer to crack and non-dictionary passwords require a “brute force” attack, with the chance of success reduced to almost zero.
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“As I am one who has an eye for anything free, I duly complied only to find (yet again) the same old passwords, user names and pin numbers syndrome. I object to doing this all for the sake of a “free” baguette.”
If it’s too much hassle, don’t do it, nobody’s forcing you to.
Do you not know, there’s no such thing as a free lunch? The baguette is your payment for providing the company with all your personal details which they can then sell on to the highest bidder.
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