Saturday, May 15, 2010

Thoughtless Email

Every sixty to ninety days, the exact number of days is a secret, I am forced to change one of my fifteen passwords used at work.  Changing my password wouldn't have to be that big of a deal, but it's the rules about creating passwords that give me a headache.  You will always know when someone has gotten the "Your password has expired" message at work because tears well up in their eyes and they let out an annoyed groan.

Your password must not be one of your previous five passwords.   Your password must contain numbers and letters.  Your password must be a minimum of seven characters.   The list goes on.

Yesterday, I received the dreaded message and I had to stop what I was doing to think of a new password.
Shortly after changing my password I logged in to check my email and I had a new message telling me that my password had been changed.  Keep in mind that by the time I created a new password, logged into my email, and read this message, I had forgotten what work related task I was at the computer for to begin with.

This email didn't tell me what the new password was, only that my password had been changed.  I wondered if they sent that in case I wasn't the one who changed the password.  That way I would know someone was messing with my account.

But then I thought about it.   If someone had been messing with my account password, then I wouldn't have been able to log in and see the email.

1 comment:

Poptart said...

I get so angry when the system puts so many rules on the password and it takes me about 10 tries to get one right. I end up making passwords like f%&#off.