Protecting important data

So you know how passwords usually have particular requirements?

Like, it has to be this many characters, and has to include a number or symbol, or you have to stand on your head when you type it, or whatever? I find some of them really annoying, although I understand the why of it. You want it to be difficult for other people to figure out.

The system for our online time recording requires us to change the password every three months. And you can't use the same password as the last three times. So I am constantly locking myself out and asking them to reset. It's really irritating for all involved.

But so many passwords I need, particularly at work, just don't matter. Nobody is trying to break into these applications, and if they did, they wouldn't get any important data anyway.

So my old boss sent out an email to a number of us who use a particular program. It used to be that we would all log in with the same login name, and use the same password.

But now we will each log in with our own email addresses, and he said he needed a password from each of us. He asked us please not to use a password we use for anything important. Like, he doesn't want know what we use for our online banking.

But he didn't give us any parameters. And I wanted it simple.

I was doing three other things and running off to a meeting, and didn't have the time to put much thought into it. So I hastily emailed him back with my suggested password and a question about it.

He stopped me in the hallway a couple hours later. He said, "I have to show you something that really made me laugh. And I'd like to thank you for it."

He pulled out his Treo and handed it to me.

On the screen was the email I'd sent him.

"How about Nick? Does length matter?"

And he said, "Lis, only you can answer that question."