Identity Chaos

I booted up my computer this morning. And I wait, as I normally do, for the machine to grind its way to life. With Windows XP, I am used to the wait. The boot up sequence gives me time to check my voice mail, read my paper mail, go through the newspaper, and read a small novel. And, if there is a security patch, I can usually fit in a workout as well.

However, this morning was not a normal morning. No. The login prompted me for a new password before I could gain access to my computer.

“Hmmm,” I thought, “I just changed the password last week. Why do I need to change it again?”

Oh well. No problem. I keyed in a new password. And then I discovered that a new security policy had been implemented.

“Your password must be 8 characters minimum and it must contain a combination of letters and numbers. You cannot use any of your previous 13 passwords. Please enter your new password now.”

Identity chaos.

Also known as password chaos.

This is a situation in which users have multiple identities and passwords across a variety of networks, applications, computers and/or computing devices. To further complicate matters, each of the user’s passwords may be subject to different rules, allow access at different security levels, and expire on different dates.

I have over 150 userid/passwords. This is simply out of control.

I purchased a software program to manage the list of userid/passwords. But, I have to maintain all of the changes manually. Which I forget to do. So the list of userid/passwords gets staledated and becomes useless.

Not that it matters really. The software program is password protected and I can’t remember the password.

Isn’t it great to be secure?