MindFreak Posted May 20, 2021 Posted May 20, 2021 (edited) My work has introduced new requirements for passwords and they are so complex that I can't make any password that I can remember and enter relatively quickly. And to make matters worse, they are to be updated regularly. Have nobody told IT security people that frequent change of password will LOWER security? And I can't use a key logger because I need to logon through a Citrix workspace / VDI. They should instead set-up some sort of MFA. Passwords are oldschool. Edited May 20, 2021 by MindFreak 1
Ashley Posted May 20, 2021 Posted May 20, 2021 19 minutes ago, MindFreak said: My work has introduced new requirements for passwords and they are so complex that I can't make any password that I can remember and enter relatively quickly. And to make matters worse, they are to be updated regularly. Have nobody told IT security people that frequent change of password will LOWER security? And I can't use a key logger because I need to logon through a Citrix workspace / VDI. They should instead set-up some sort of MFA. Passwords are oldschool. I work for various different clients who have different password requirements (including sometimes internally for different systems) and it's a pain. I've gotten to the point where I just do the three words thing and some special characters/numbers but its a nightmare trying to remember which one is for which client. And while I'm moaning they all have different VPN clients too.
MindFreak Posted May 20, 2021 Posted May 20, 2021 6 minutes ago, Ashley said: I just do the three words thing and some special characters/numbers Tried that as well but it didn't work for some reason. Now I'll generate a strong password and copy it to a keylogger from which i can copy and paste it to the VDI. Seriously - how secure is that then?
MindFreak Posted May 20, 2021 Posted May 20, 2021 Real words are not accepted. So would have to replace every second or third character with other characters. I tell you, it's an insanely complex requirement! But I got LastPass to generate a password for me and then I'll have to copy-paste that to the VDI when I need to enter my password. 1
Will Posted May 21, 2021 Posted May 21, 2021 Password stuff like this is so ridiculous. At one of my previous companies everyone ended up writing their passwords on post-it notes which they stuck to their monitors and then amended one character every couple of weeks. Super secure that one!
Ashley Posted May 22, 2021 Posted May 22, 2021 Work wise I'm feeling in limbo (life wise as well but that's a different thread). I left my job at the end of 2019 to go travelling and I have been fortunate to do consultancy work since April which pays well, and now down to 2 days a week to try and chill out a bit ("it's supposed to be my year off!" was my refrain during 2020) and figure out what I'm doing next. Part of me is sick of being in front of a computer but then I wonder what other skills I have. I'm kind of playing around with web design stuff at the moment just to bring my skills up a bit and think maybe doing that freelance, but unsure how successful I would be at that. I don't think I'd want to be part of a company though. Also had the idea of becoming an animal hydrotherapist in the back of my mind for a while and just had a look at that but it was a bit disheartening that it says "starting salary is around 18k" which is a significant step back. So I don't know, maybe a fall back plan (although it would involve training). If someone could decide for me that would be great.
Esequiel Posted June 4, 2021 Posted June 4, 2021 So I’m at another impasse. 2.5 years at my current company, working as number 2 to the GM learning the role, learning the company inside and out. Down on all the paperwork as the GMs successor when he retires..... well he retired early due to illness, I have been doing the acting GMs job for the last 2 months and then on Tuesday morning I get invited to a meeting with the board who proceed to tell me that they have promoted someone to MD from another section of the company and they trust I will be able to support him as his number 2. Feels like so much wasted time, what’s the point in being number 2 if you don’t make it to number 1?
nightwolf Posted June 4, 2021 Posted June 4, 2021 38 minutes ago, Esequiel said: So I’m at another impasse. 2.5 years at my current company, working as number 2 to the GM learning the role, learning the company inside and out. Down on all the paperwork as the GMs successor when he retires..... well he retired early due to illness, I have been doing the acting GMs job for the last 2 months and then on Tuesday morning I get invited to a meeting with the board who proceed to tell me that they have promoted someone to MD from another section of the company and they trust I will be able to support him as his number 2. Feels like so much wasted time, what’s the point in being number 2 if you don’t make it to number 1? Not quite wasted time, you've learnt how to do the role and a lot of those skills will be transferable to "number 1" in another company. Recently did this myself, spent 3+ years, finally about to get the role, pulled from me, ended up leaving that company for a higher role and 6 months in and I'm now doing an even larger role. It would have taken me another 2 years to get even close at my former company. I'd say either stick as your are now and soak up even more or move on. You owe them nothing. 1
Raining_again Posted June 5, 2021 Posted June 5, 2021 On 21/05/2021 at 2:41 AM, Will said: Password stuff like this is so ridiculous. At one of my previous companies everyone ended up writing their passwords on post-it notes which they stuck to their monitors and then amended one character every couple of weeks. Super secure that one! we arent computers, we just aren't built to remember dozens of unique fuckin passwords that have to change on a fairly regular basis especially if you work in a place where you have multiple types of servers, databases etc to log on to, all of which have different requirements and change on different frequencies. I have a password protected excel spreadsheet where I hold all my passwords, it is the safest middle ground i could come to. Passwords give me an absolute headache lol
Will Posted June 5, 2021 Posted June 5, 2021 46 minutes ago, Raining_again said: we arent computers, we just aren't built to remember dozens of unique fuckin passwords that have to change on a fairly regular basis especially if you work in a place where you have multiple types of servers, databases etc to log on to, all of which have different requirements and change on different frequencies. I have a password protected excel spreadsheet where I hold all my passwords, it is the safest middle ground i could come to. Passwords give me an absolute headache lol Yeah totally. I used to do the same as you having a password protected spreadsheet for all of my passwords. A few years ago I decided to pay for a password manager and it’s totally worth it. I don’t know any of my passwords, just one that unlocks the password manager and take things from there. It’s slightly annoying when you want to set up a new device for the first time and need to manually enter some ridiculous 20 character password into iTunes or something, but other than that I thoroughly recommend it to everyone. 1
Happenstance Posted June 5, 2021 Posted June 5, 2021 But where do you both keep the password for the spreadsheet???
Will Posted June 5, 2021 Posted June 5, 2021 On the label of the floppy disk the spreadsheet is stored on. 1 1
Raining_again Posted June 5, 2021 Posted June 5, 2021 2 hours ago, Happenstance said: But where do you both keep the password for the spreadsheet??? i got it on a post it note on my monitor LOL (i joke its just an easy one i can remember and never change) 1
Ashley Posted June 5, 2021 Posted June 5, 2021 Speaking of silly password stuff; our newest client assigned us generic accounts (which sometimes happens for consultants) but with all the same password that we can't change. There is 2FA but it's pretty stupid that we've all been given the same password (and know each other's usernames) and the password isn't that secure in the first place.
EEVILMURRAY Posted June 5, 2021 Posted June 5, 2021 On 08/05/2021 at 10:02 AM, EEVILMURRAY said: I do however have a challenge set by Games Workshop for a game dev role there, so that's my weekend covered as I complete this mission in time... Chased this up twice and haven't heard any reply, so assuming I haven't gotten in, but a bit unprofessional to not even tell me. One of our agency staff has gone, soo many mistakes/not enough productivity. Sadly I think the one I am mentoring may be on his last legs. Great chap, but he's too slow in duties, checking stuff on spreadsheets is a simple copy and paste job (where he was right clicking copy, right click paste), so had to teach him the power of ctrl C + ctrl V. Something I could manage in 30ish minutes takes him 6 hours plus. I don't expect him to match my speed, but this is ridiculous, so he isn't typing any letters. One week I took over the spreadsheets so he could just type, did an alright amount for a newbie - was also doing capital letters by toggling caps lock on and off, so had to show how the shift key works... but after having the letters back from the consultant ready to go out, he didn't send them out and had them sitting in his inbox (also a mess) for almost a month... Unacceptable shit.
nightwolf Posted June 5, 2021 Posted June 5, 2021 3 hours ago, Ashley said: Speaking of silly password stuff; our newest client assigned us generic accounts (which sometimes happens for consultants) but with all the same password that we can't change. There is 2FA but it's pretty stupid that we've all been given the same password (and know each other's usernames) and the password isn't that secure in the first place. If we add to the password stuff. I had my first ever incident where my work has found that my data has been leaked through them, not my fault, but somehow all my work data (such as salary, title etc) are out there, in a fairly nosy field. Potentially also everything else. GAH. 1
Ashley Posted June 5, 2021 Posted June 5, 2021 1 hour ago, nightwolf said: If we add to the password stuff. I had my first ever incident where my work has found that my data has been leaked through them, not my fault, but somehow all my work data (such as salary, title etc) are out there, in a fairly nosy field. Potentially also everything else. GAH. God that's infuriating. What is your company doing about it?
nightwolf Posted June 6, 2021 Posted June 6, 2021 13 hours ago, Ashley said: God that's infuriating. What is your company doing about it? They brought in a third party and offered me some protection from that. I already have several things in place to ensure my details/financials are safe, so I was fairly annoyed. The issue is that I still don't know how it occurred. Only that it occurred by someone who has access to all that information and it wasn't just my details that were leaked. In fairness to them, they have been very proactive, but considering the details that might have been leaked, I'd have liked a little more than a letter with a url to a third party to protect my details that includes handing over my national insurance number.
Happenstance Posted June 7, 2021 Posted June 7, 2021 In the middle of a big database transfer at work at the moment and we've just found out that the way we store our parent contacts (as one contact) is different than how the new company does it (parents separately) so I have to now split apart at least 2000 contacts on these spreadsheets to get them uploaded correctly. Doesn't help as well that we are months behind schedule because firstly my school decided to furlough me so we didn't start until I got back to work and then the new database company took a month to do a 4 day data extraction. I almost left for lunch today then just never came back 1
nightwolf Posted June 11, 2021 Posted June 11, 2021 Oh Happenstance, I hope the rest of the week went a bit better! I suppose I should offset my ranting in another thread to say I accepted a little uplift in my duties! I'm now the manager to two reports for the first time ever. It's really fun to see the change on my reports slack of who their manager is....even if its a little scary! 1
Happenstance Posted June 11, 2021 Posted June 11, 2021 20 minutes ago, nightwolf said: Oh Happenstance, I hope the rest of the week went a bit better! Oh of course not, it got worse 😆 I finished splitting the current parents, went to start on the prospective ones and it turned out they just hadn’t included them. Took 2 more attempts of extracting our data to get them finally today. It’s a terrible company that we’re really not happy we were forced into switching to. I’m still looking to move on anyway. Been trying to update my cv a bit to a more creative/graphic design direction this month and taking a course or two to pad it. The other IT guy is also applying for work elsewhere so the school could be in for an interesting time come September if we both managed to leave. 1
Happenstance Posted June 17, 2021 Posted June 17, 2021 They shouldn't have given me power over the CCTV at work. I've just spent all afternoon playing with it
darksnowman Posted June 20, 2021 Posted June 20, 2021 On 17/06/2021 at 4:17 PM, Happenstance said: They shouldn't have given me power over the CCTV at work. I've just spent all afternoon playing with it Five Nights at Happies... coming soon! 1
Happenstance Posted June 21, 2021 Posted June 21, 2021 Just spent the morning fixing a programme for the school's end of term stuff. The Marketing department were the ones who created it...in MS Word...using spaces instead of tabs or tables....with things not aligned anyway....with headers on the previous page from their information. It just pisses me off that these are the people paid to create this kind of job and the younger kids in ICT lessons could have done a better job. 1
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