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Are passwords soon to be a thing of the past?

By: Jenny Rausch | 08/11/2008

A New York Times article today caught my attention for two reasons: it contained the words “Goodbye” and “Passwords.” Can you imagine a world where passwords were not needed? Here at Standing Partnership, we've developed a process in which our passwords change on a monthly basis. This simple security step has struck fear into the lives of many in our office.

The change to our normal routine of password swapping has been a struggle for all of us. Previously, all you had to do to change your password was to simply add a number at the end of the set password. For example, set password “jenny” turned into current password “jenny1”. You may laugh, but as “IT person” at our office, this was quite common. I get it though - we're all busy and one more thing to remember isn't always convenient.

Our password process has changed dramatically. Gone are the days when you could use a form of your previous password. Also, you are required to have a mixture of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. I'd like to make one thing clear to my colleagues: I did not have any part of this mayhem. Believe me; it took me 10 minutes to think of my own password! But, we're a creative bunch, so I have the utmost faith in you.

Being able to say ‘Goodbye' to passwords would be a miracle sent from above. As Randall Stross explains in the article, we need to move towards a more secure system where machines “talk” to each other rather than relying on a familiar phrase like “jenny1.” I think I saw something like this before in 1984. It was a movie called “The Terminator.” Hopefully once all the big players in the Web site world and IT world get on board, we can all say in our most obnoxious Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation, “Hasta la vista, passwords.”

Posted in Internal/Employee Communications, Employee Relations