This is the first of a two part article in which we consider making the simplest and most often used form of security, the password, more difficult to crack. Can the use of passphrases that are easy to remember and difficult to guess be the answer?
At $45 per minute, I passed on using the in-flight cellular phones. So upon landing, I immediately ran to the bank of public phones at Washington, DC's National Airport to make a slew of overdue calls.
I whipped out my handy dandy 'Call Anywhere For a Price' telephone travel card and proceeded to enter the endless stream of numbers required. First the 11 digits for the 800 number. Then the 10 digits for my domestic call. Then the next 12 digits for my personal authorization code which permits me to run up infinitely large bills from anywhere in the world. Ring. Ring. Then a click. Another click. One more ring.. a (33 keystrokes down the tubes. Something was not right here) and the familiar sound of a pick up. "We're sorry, we cannot complete this call as dialled. You entered your personal authorization number with the wrong finger." It seems like no matter where you go, or what you do, today you have to interact with a computer. Either a computer on your desk, a computer in your lap or one located thousands of miles away. In the business world, we sit for hour after endless hour pounding away at a keyboard hoping our creative output or mundane data entry is good enough to earn us yet another week's pay cheque.
Even Ma and Pa and Dick and Jane and all of the folks at home have to 'talk' to computers to get something done. Banking from home, making a phone call, automatic teller machines, payments at the grocery store, order a Pay For View TV show. From whatever electronic marvel we have at home, at the other end of the wire sits a computer breathlessly waiting for our command.