watervole: (Default)
Judith Proctor ([personal profile] watervole) wrote2005-11-03 01:56 pm

worst password site

I've just encountered my worst case ever of obsessive password trouble.

The site for student loans can only be accessed if you input your ART number (a long set of digits), your password (a random alphanumberic string) and your secret answer (another random alphanumeric string).

You're allowed to change the password, but there's a sting. You have to input your ART number and your existing password and input (and confirm) a new one that meet their rules. But they don't tell you all the rules in advance. So if you input a password that is just number or just letters, they reject it. (and it must be at least 8 characters long). And if you finally manage to input a password which meets all the rules (which is by definition low-security as you'll have to write it down somewhere), then *and only then* do they tell you that there was a mistake in either your ART number or your original password.

I don't see that security would be seriously compromised by telling me there was a mistake at the time I made it, rather than after several minutes battling to input an acceptable password.

At which point, I gave up. Henry says he's got his student loan now - I'll just hope that the site has the correct details.

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