Sunday, November 26, 2006

Passwords

Have you given a thought to how important passwords have become to our lives? With many corporations requiring new passwords every thirty days or so in addition to passwords for e-mail accounts, online shopping or financial institutions to name but a few examples it makes you wonder how much simpler it was back in the days of a sentry asking "Halt who goes there?"

In actual fact nothing has really changed. You are still being asked "Halt who goes there?" It's me, it's me you respond to which you are asked "Password." The only difference is of course the sentry is some unknown electronic chip buried in a server that probably says Intell inside.

If we have difficulty keeping up with all of our passwords it makes you wonder if the so called super computer that accepts the connection from that most famous of briefcases which carries the secret codes that could destroy all of our happiness some sunny has a built in "Have you forgotten your password?"

I seriously hope it has one that says "Excuse me but have you given this some serious consideration?"

If we assume for a farcical but scary minute that it does have a "Have you forgotten your password" then what happens if some idiot says oops no I have forgotten it and gets access by entering the then President's mothers maiden name? Scarry stuff indeed.

What is more scarry is reality. The code or password is probably picked by a computer using some random number theory of mathematics. The only problem with any random set of letters and numbers is that on one given day they become non-random. Proof? Simple every time someone wins a lottery they just happened at random to pick an identical set of numbers that were also picked at random by a machine. Sure it may take a few weeks or even a few months but eventually the law of probability over rules the law of random numbers.

So as you type in your password today or tonight just keep in mind that one day some idiot will indeed select the correct set of passwords and have the codes. Why do I call them an idiot because only an idiot or a very evil person would even try and I am sure that both have indeed tried more times than we realize so as you put your head on the pillow tonight please remember to thank God that today when someone was asked by the super computer "Halt who goes there?" they did not know the password.

As for the next time they are asked? Well I leave it to you to calculate the date and the time when the law of probability will yet again be proven correct . . . even Google does not have that answer . . . I hope?

Who does? The bible. You will find it in Mathew chapter 6 verse 34.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was both amused and a wee bit scared in reading this. I found humor in relating to the vast number of passwords required in my life, on a daily basis.
What was scarey, is the obvious part in which you pointed out that some lunatic somewhere has access to a 'switch' that requires passwords by one or more people. Such a password could and would be devastating to the world as we know it.

8:57 PM  

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