Increased security measures create a password overload

Scott Thurm and Mylene Mangalindan   Today’s Top Stories   or  Other Careers Stories  

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December 20, 2004 (CareerJournal) -- Before she begins work each morning, Kate Prior must enter eight computer passwords. Each must contain at least eight characters, and most require letters and numbers. Every three months, she must change them all.
How does the 28-year-old monitor of drug trials remember her passwords? Easy: They're written on a blue Post-it note affixed to her computer.
Prior knows that her display threatens to undermine the very security that passwords are supposed to promote. "The IT people yell at me," she says. But she prefers the occasional scolding to the alternative: forgetting a password, guessing incorrectly three times and then having to call for help.
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