I have to change my (alpha numeric with at least one caps) pw at work every 90 days, and can't reuse the same password for like 2 years. Most corporate systems are similar, I think it has something to do with Sarbanes-Oxley. I just use the same password and count up one number every time I change (ex: 1234bob changes to 1235bob).
Is your username Atomic_Guppy? Because, I'm so going to haxor your corporate network and change everyone's background images!
No, it's a alphanumeric code I was assigned when I was hired. I don't know why I need to secure my access though, you'd have to go to school for a year to figure out what all this shit means anyway. Like I said, I think it's a Sarbanes-Oxley thing. That was a law passed after the big Enron fiasco in 2003-ish that laid out all sorts of accounting and bookkeeping rules for American corporations. Everyone on the system has to be identifiable or something. It's pretty ridiculous.
Yup, also in many environments the system has to log who viewed and what so they can be reviewed later. When I was at the hospital they logged every patient you'd view because the staff should not 'check out' folks they want to know about, only those they treat. What sucked was when I had not received a checkbox tag for accessing a certain software. I called the IT dept. and said that someone's forgotten to click on the checkbox and that they need to go enable it (they saw that I had all the other privileges that imply that too should be enabled). So, instead of doing it the guy, in his 50's, walks up to my place ~30 min wait. Then he starts going to registries and checking subprocesses and subroutines of the system etc. and I'm saying to him "look, you're in the wrong place, I know this stuff and what you're doing is not helping it. You only need to click on that checkbox I told about" and he ignored me and kept "working" on the computer for better part of an hour. Then we tried it and it didn't work - because he did nothing to enable the software and just pretended to look important and knowledgeable. Background - the software worked before I switched department but due to the previous contract being terminated all my checkboxes were cleared. So there was nothing that needed to be done on my client. Then sometime around afternoon I finally reached someone else who just went and clicked that box and everything worked straight up. That sucked. Having to rely on a condescending and obnoxious idiot who doesn't have a clue as to what the hell he is doing.
I believe that's done on purpose, see, in the world of IT, the stories are -far- more amusing when you hook up incompetent with competent, regardless of which end of the problem is which, incompetent IT guy with a knowledgeable client means client chews fingers off waiting for IT guy to figure out what they've told him many times already, competent IT guy with incompetent client means IT guy chews off fingers trying to drill the answer through the clients unobtanium skull. It's a conspiracy to ensure that problems are solved with the most time and greatest frustration so that the rest of us get to enjoy the schadenfreude hearing the story ^.^
