7.7.08

Life with Username and Password..


Username : vazudew
Password : **************



Yup..! I just logged in…

You know, the world has shifted from “open-ness” to private space. Everything comes with a username and password. No wonder one day you can see newborn too having her own username and password..!!

I am done with these everyday credentials. I am almost falling short of passwords. No I can not use the same password for all accounts coz it constrains my creativity. And having only one password also makes me scared to think what if the so called hacker gets to unlock one of my account and follows same password for unlocking all my accounts ? J . I remember in my kid hood days I used to win those “Memorizing games” but now I doubt myself..!! :)

Besides how to manage usernames? What about having an algorithm for generating a username and password duads? What if we forget the algorithm itself? Recently I came across a funny situation :) A gentleman had come to one of nationalized, reputed bank. He had problem with his password for internet banking. He demanded for the password and really got pissed off knowing the fee for freezing his account and getting a fresh password. So this man started re-collecting the algorithm to retrieve the password (He must be software professional as he had an algorithm for password and also he dint want to pay the bank fee ...!). He got his pen and paper to start with to find the password. It reminded me of Sherlock Holmes stories. It was like a kid without caring for its well being, resolved to crack the puzzle. He started off with the bank’s name, account number, his wife’s and gal friend’s maiden name, some constant number he used for banking purposes. Oh man..!! It was a function of so many parameters.. Will he succeed?

Nope.. Poor guy ended up having password for his ATM account. No, he still tried (I guess he must be from Testing team) and also included some more missing parameters and No, he still could not. At last he paid the bank fee and left the place immediately getting fresh password. I got impressed with him for his stubbornness to save couple of hundreds, the meticulous brain behind solving algorithm. Later on I was told that, he had forgotten his passwords many times as his algorithm was not stabilized and has spent lots of money retrieving the password. Pity on him..!


It also reminds of Joey of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. fame who always used to write his ATM password on ATM box itself?? Are there any alternate solutions? Gals really get impressed with dudes with many gadgets and cards .I pity those guys for the amount of username password they have to maintain for the security


Yup I do agree, everyone needs private space and it should not be invaded by intruders. Credentials are of great importance for doing so. May it be for ATM card, E –mail account or even for personal desktops as all these involves with a person’s privacy.
Security is a big issue. Lots of work is going on in this field .People are coming up with concepts like cryptology and coding. But isn’t that just too much for common beings to digest?

Imagine this…

You are in a public place and you want to attend nature’s call very urgently..
You enter a public toilet and the door is demanding some crap 7 digit password
Which obviously you can not guess then..!!!

What you will do ??
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Lets complicate things some more
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The public place referred above IS NOT IN INDIA..!!! J