Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Websites that impose their password pattern

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Websites that impose their password pattern

Some websites insist that the password must fit their pattern, such as:

* must be at least 8 digits.
* must be more than 8 digits
* must be exactly 8 digits
* must have both numeric and alphabetic characters.

The designers of these websites forget that the ordinary people, like me, have to deal with more than 10 different websites and passwords. By insisting on a password that fit their pattern, they force the user to create an unfamiliar password that they are likely to remember quickly.

Singpass insist that the password must be more than 8 digits. I keep forgetting my password. I must have asked for it to be re-set at leat 10 times.

7 comments:

Khiat Han Hwee Adrian said...: HSBC internet banking insist 6-10alpha-numberic letters. Moreover same number or alphabet cannot repeat 2 times.
I keyed in the password y'day but today already forgot, gosh...; March 29, 2007 11:26 PM
Thomas Phua's Blog said...: Mr Tan,
I will email you how I will never forget my Sing Pass ID

- Thomas Phua; March 30, 2007 12:14 AM
Anonymous said...: Hi --

My solution is to take my most complicated password and use it for all applications.

It is unlikely that any new application will reject it as it has numbers in the middle and both small and capital letters. It also has a couple of symbols.

Here it is: r#35Wv3(dc09

I don't mind posting my password on the internet in this way since it is practically impossible for anyone to remember it (including me).

Sincerely,

Larry Haverkamp; March 30, 2007 7:49 AM
Anonymous said...: Mr Tan,

One way around this issue is to use whatever website name first, followed by your usual password, eg. gmailjohnlim99, as I have alpha plus numerics in my password anyway. What's worst is that my company forces us to use Caps,alpha & numerics. And if this fails, I always make sure that I have my username & password on my Palm PDA and set it under "Hide Private Records"

john lim; March 30, 2007 9:23 AM
Monsoon said...: I forget my password and user name for my blog and then got lock out for a few weeks, manage to retrieve it today and then I make a posting on my blog about forgetting password refering also to your posting about password. Looks like a lot of people have the same problem. I resort to writing my numerous user names and passwords on the back of my cabinet door near to my computer.; March 30, 2007 4:19 PM
Anonymous said...: I too have the same problem. System should be designed to simplify and suit our way of usage but end up the other way round.; March 31, 2007 2:48 PM
Edwin said...: It is quite simple to manage your passwords.

Have a set of passwords that you can remember and memorize it well. Say 3 to 4 sets.

1 set is for Banks or Singpass access
1 set is for Emails

etrc.. etc..

That way, you know which one to write in even though you have different email accounts.; April 01, 2007 9:25 AM