Yesterday’s work went fine, but it was a very long day yesterday and I finally got back to my hotel at about 10pm - to then go to bed to go back to work again…
I was on the tube the other day and was quite deep underground when I realised that there was a chap chatting away on his mobile phone. My brain took a bit of time to process it but then the penny dropped that mobile phones don’t work underground. There were a couple of blokes opposite and one of them noticed this chap too and he got out his mobile phone to see if it had a signal. It didn’t. He then motioned to his friend, pointing to this chap and showing the lack of signal on his own phone. Then other people noticed and people just kept looking at this chap, who really did sound as though he was having a conversation with someone, thinking that he must have been a little bit insane, as surely he could only be talking to himself in reality. Very strange.
I was also a little bit naughty this week. Someone in my team was off and she wanted us to log into her computer so that we could retrieve some information from her machine. Officially, you’re not supposed to give anyone else your password, but she did, and so D attempted to log on to her machine. But the password didn’t work, even though he checked it with her. So the password got locked and we had to get it reset. Only then D told me I had to pretend to be her because he didn’t think that our IT people would believe that he was a middle aged woman. So we tried to think of the answer to all the questions they would ask and I was tasked with phoning them. They didn’t seem to take much convincing of who I was and I answered all their questions with a small bit of guesswork. But then they said that for security reasons they would have to phone me back to confirm I was the person I said I was. So he rang off, called me back on the number I had given (which was actually my extension and not hers) and asked if I was my colleague. I said I was and he reset the password. As security procedures go, I’m not absolutely convinced that they have a foolproof plan.
2 comments:
I.T. reset passwords are definitely not foolproof. We have to rely on the bit of paper everyone signed to say they wouldn't abuse the system.
So many people forget their passwords you wouldn't believe it. And security questions are no good, because people forget their answers. And move jobs without telling us, change phone numbers etc etc.
So in a way,it *is* foolproof - in that even the biggest fool can manage to get a password reset.
As for security? What's that then?
We used to have a system where you were given 9 random letters that were designed specifically NOT to form a word, so it was a bit of the luck of the draw if you came up with something you could remember.
Now we can use our own passwords as long as they meet certain rules, so they're easier to remember - but that doesn't help when you're trying to break into someone else's computer!
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