It would be interesting to know how many internet users are criminals. The constant need to invent passwords that are long enough and complicated enough to deter thieves is tiring and unproductive. Even with all the password managers that have been provided to help bypass this problem I seem to suffer from an inability to use them, understand them, and I cannot get the logic in my head that will help me solve the problem.
It may be just me, but since the New Year rolled over, many of the websites I frequent, even my own, require logging in with passwords. I thought I was in the clear when the new Mac I bought featured a touch control for passwords. Even though I like the feature, all it seems to protect me from is me. Over the past fifteen years I have invented hundreds of passwords of complexity that makes them hard to remember, and easy to mis-type. One of the biggest problems I encounter these days is a secure site that tells me it is time to change my password. Then, when I want to use a password I’ve used before to make it easy for me, it tells me that it won’t accept it because it has been used before. In my password manager, I have as many as a dozen passwords for the same user name, all because of the incessant need for using passwords that thieves cannot break. I fully understand the need for passwords that are long, complicated, and impossible to remember in order to take more time for a computer to read and discover the key. Even thieves have rules regarding what is worth the time and what is not. All the banter about artificial intelligence is making me wonder if AI will be smart enough to learn passwords easily. If AI can do that we are screwed. No one will be secure from hackers who use AI.
Even with the rapid advancement of computer development, we are still in the stone age of security. If human development is a model, it will be hundreds or even thousands of years before this problem is resolved. All the benefits we accrue by using the internet will be offset by the loss of energy being expended fighting off hackers.
At this point, I have only one solution for reducing the need for passwords: don’t use or visit the internet.
Filed under: Aging, Education, Seniors | Tagged: Easy Passwords, Hackers, Time to crack a PW |
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