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It is impossible to remember all my passwords

Francisco Miraval

According to a recent story published by Clarin newspaper, an Argentina neurologist estimated that 90 percent of people could remember no more than four passwords. (See “Contraseña,” Clarin.com, Nov. 3, 2012). The problem is that, on the average, people use 15 passwords to access web sites or ATMs.

This situation, at least for the writer of this column, is certainly overwhelming. I have to remember more than 15 passwords and, on top of that, I cannot repeat them for different sites, because it may create security problems. In addition, I have to change the passwords every so often, because many sites force users to do it.

I work at a local university in Denver where passwords last only a few weeks, that is, only a semester. The new passwords cannot be similar to any of the three previous passwords. In addition, changing the new password is not an automatic process. I have to enter manually the new password at each site for each of the services offered by the university.

One time I forgot to do it and I was almost a month without receiving messages in my email account at this university. I was still receiving the emails in my personal account, so I did no lose any information, but it could have happened.

Not only we now need to remember more and more passwords, which is impossible to do, but those passwords are now more complicated, mixing letters (some of them capitalized), numbers, and even special characters. It seems to me it will be easier to learn and remember Egyptian hieroglyphs than to remember these nonsensical passwords.

Even worst, there are sites where they create the password for you. Those passwords are generally so complicated I do not even try to remember them. In fact, one of the sites I am subscribed to has a password so complicated that every time I need to access this site I simply request a new password.

And there is even more. Once you finally access the site, then you still need to access more questions, usually related to issues you already forgot, such as “What was the make and model of your first car,” or things you never experienced, such as, “What are the colors of the American football team of your college?” (My college in Argentina did not have an American football team.)

I am not asking for the passwords to be abolished. We need systems to protect our information and money. However, I am concerned about the effect this situation is having on the minds and behavior of people

For example, I know a person who has several Facebook accounts simply because every time he forgets the password he creates a new account. And he does the same thing with his email accounts. It is not a good solution, but it is understandable.

The “Google effect” –no need to memorize what you can search online– is already known (see the article mentioned above.) The “password effect” is just beginning.

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