Sixteen Random Numbers

Remember the days that all your worldly secrets were comprised of a few lines in a diary you kept in the bottom of your sock drawer. When we moved past Jr high we were entrusted with a combination lock for our gym clothes and books. Not much much to protect except perhaps the personal Cd player, we weren't supposed to have in class.

So many things have changed, now we can access information anywhere in the world while sitting on the couch. We don't even need a computer, just an Iphone. With access to a world of information at your fingertips one must need a way to protect it, thus the never ending use of passwords. It seems everything requires a password or code- some require only four digits like our garage door and bank card, others eight, up to 12 characters for email and online accounts. For, " maximum security," the little red box blinks back at me," IT IS RECOMMENDED TO USE A COMBINATION OF LETTERS, NUMBERS AND SYMBOLS. Curious that my bank only needs four digits to keep my information secure, while my email is only secure with 12. So it is possible to end up with something like #L4s*_PS149K2003. Listen its not NASA- just a stupid Itunes account. Yeah, so what if they have your bank account info what is the reality of someone logging in and downloading hundreds of dollars of music before you are aware it.

I took the password theory way to seriously, way too long. Seems I had a different one for every account, important or not. Seriously, why do I need an account to buy a blouse? I used to laugh at people who use the same password across the board, but, now after being locked out of my own email for weeks and spending a couple hours unlocking the mystery to resetting it, I'm beginning to see the simplicity in it. Kinda like a master key the custodian had back in Jr. High. It finally occurred to me the irony in having having such complicated passwords when my husband asked me if I had reset my email password after he got me back into the account, I told him yes. He quipped, " Yeah, to sixteen random numbers." Yep, he nailed it. I do have a tendency to over complicate things.

When I was a kid, we would have to go to the library to do research, the typing lab to write the paper and to the office if we needed copies. I would have to wait till Friday for my mom to take me to the Bank- sign my little passbook to make a withdraw from my savings account. While all this seems today, as if it were a real pain, it was simple way to do things and seemed more direct and personal.

Honestly, I would prefer keeping important information in the filing cabinet and secrets in my sock drawer- you never have heard of someone getting arrested for identity theft for hacking into someones sock drawer.