Please enter your PIN:
As we’re on about ‘software sentries’, allow me to introduce my latest anti-passion: security barriers to accessing everything from ex-spouse to bank accounts, credit cards, ATMs, websites, blogsites, mobile phones, toilets…
I have around 35 assorted PINs, of which I only know what one of them is for; 2784 passwords to IM services I hardly ever use because I keep misplacing my password and have to start a new account because none of my answers to those “secret personal questions” match up. Because I refuse to give out my email address and so I have a yahoo mail account and an msn account and a hotmail account and I never use any of them, but they all give you passwords. So I write them down on post-its and promptly lose them.
And anyway, what’s the point?
None of this stuff is secure, no matter what they tell you. The moment it’s out there, well, it’s out there. Someone can pick it up. Most likely a brilliant 14 year old geek in Romania. And then it’s all over.
I resolutely refuse to get involved in ANYTHING that requires a password or a PIN any longer.
Did you know what a PUK was? Nor did I, till my mobile locked me out (which it will do if you’re sloppy about recharging till the battery dies, and then you have to “enter your PIN”, and if you get it wrong 3 times, which I manage to do quite easily, it then locks you out FOREVER, or till you enter your PUK. My PUK? Ughh, that sounds like the start of something you do when you’re feeling airsick with the E gone missing and anyway I don’t HAVE a PUK! Do I? And where should I be looking for it??
To get back to the ubiquitous PIN, I tried paying a couple of overdue bills with my ATM card today. It let me go through the whole spiel, till it came to hitting “pay full amount”, and then it spat out my card. “You got your PIN wrong on 3 tries and that’s it for the day, go home now.” HUH??? I just got my new card, and I used the new PIN, which I'd scribbled onto a post-it and slipped into my wallet with the card, which is EXACTLY what they tell you NOT to do, in case you lose your wallet. Because whoever took it/found it will most likely be morally challenged, and will think nothing of cleaning out your account without a thought as to how you will feed your cats and anyway, I still have my wallet and wait a sec., now WHERE is that damn post-it?!?
I have around 35 assorted PINs, of which I only know what one of them is for; 2784 passwords to IM services I hardly ever use because I keep misplacing my password and have to start a new account because none of my answers to those “secret personal questions” match up. Because I refuse to give out my email address and so I have a yahoo mail account and an msn account and a hotmail account and I never use any of them, but they all give you passwords. So I write them down on post-its and promptly lose them.
And anyway, what’s the point?
None of this stuff is secure, no matter what they tell you. The moment it’s out there, well, it’s out there. Someone can pick it up. Most likely a brilliant 14 year old geek in Romania. And then it’s all over.
I resolutely refuse to get involved in ANYTHING that requires a password or a PIN any longer.
Did you know what a PUK was? Nor did I, till my mobile locked me out (which it will do if you’re sloppy about recharging till the battery dies, and then you have to “enter your PIN”, and if you get it wrong 3 times, which I manage to do quite easily, it then locks you out FOREVER, or till you enter your PUK. My PUK? Ughh, that sounds like the start of something you do when you’re feeling airsick with the E gone missing and anyway I don’t HAVE a PUK! Do I? And where should I be looking for it??
To get back to the ubiquitous PIN, I tried paying a couple of overdue bills with my ATM card today. It let me go through the whole spiel, till it came to hitting “pay full amount”, and then it spat out my card. “You got your PIN wrong on 3 tries and that’s it for the day, go home now.” HUH??? I just got my new card, and I used the new PIN, which I'd scribbled onto a post-it and slipped into my wallet with the card, which is EXACTLY what they tell you NOT to do, in case you lose your wallet. Because whoever took it/found it will most likely be morally challenged, and will think nothing of cleaning out your account without a thought as to how you will feed your cats and anyway, I still have my wallet and wait a sec., now WHERE is that damn post-it?!?
Labels: ATM, password, PIN, post-it, PUK, secure, security barriers
posted by Priya Tuli at
2:11 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home