On one site, as I created a new password, they would advise me on the strength of each version. On my first attempt, when I typed in the minimum 6 characters, I was not surprised that the strength was determined to be WEAK. I added two numbers and was relieved to see that the strength had changed to MODERATE. Although I felt better, I thought to myself, "what kind of underachiever would be satisfied with MODERATE?" I changed some letters from upper to lower case and added another symbol. WHAT?? It was still classified as MODERATE! I felt as if I were back in school taking the SAT. My secure enrollment on this web site depended on the strength of my password! I finally pulled out all the stops. I used upper and lower case letters, numbers, dashes, you name it, and triumphantly earned the STRONG rating. The problem was, distracted as I had been by the creative process, I hadn't written down the 13 character password and had forgotten it! What a dilemma. The more secure the password, the harder it was to remember. Furthermore, even if I had thought to write it down, would I really want to be encumbered by this albatross everytime I wanted to access that account? I don't even remember what site it was for, but I finally decided it wasn't worth the trouble.
The subsequent problem is how to keep track of your passwords. We're told to write them down in a "safe place", but for me, the most convenient place, near the computer, is also the least safe. Ironically, no one in my family cares about my feedback profile on Etsy or what impulse purchase I just made on Amazon and the tech support person from Ebay can access most of my information from out in cyberspace, so why am I hiding my passwords in the first place?
Copyright 2011 KKR
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