Password chaos

Password chaos, also known as identity chaos, is the feeling experienced by computer users who use a large amount of software applications which require authentication.

An example would be a user who needs needs a password to log in to their workstation, then one for their e-mail, one for the company intranet, one for a client database, one for a document archiving system. This already amounts to five accounts, for which the user names may not necessarily be the same.

Even if the user names are the same, the passwords may not be the same depending on each application's security requirements (i.e. one requires 10 characters minimum, another has 8 maximum; one needs at least one capital letter or number, another does not accept capital letters; one needs the password to be changed every week, another can only be changed once a month).

Some companies are well organized in this respect, or have implemented fingerprint authentication or password hints so that a user's credentials are entered automatically, but others may not focus on ease of use or even worsen the situation by constantly implementing new applications with their own authentication system.

Password chaos will typically affect users, but can also affect technical departments who manage user accounts as they are constantly reinistalizing passwords, lowering morale in both cases. Certain situations may also lead to users typing their passwords in cleartext in text files so as to not have to remember them, or even writing them down on paper notes.

ee also

* Security question

External links

* [http://computing-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/password+chaos TheFreeDictionary article on the subject]
* [http://www.identitychaos.com identitychaos.com - MIIS & ILM blog]