I'm sure we've all heard an old-timer gruff "burglar alarm system? pmmfff! When I was a kid, we left all of our windows and doors open, and the only burglar alarm we needed was a Labrador; and we were all fine!" Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, old man.

What I don’t think many of us realize is that *we* will eventually become that old fogey. Except, it won't be with burglar alarms: "eight-factor biometric synchronous quantum authentication? Pmmff! When I was a kid, all we needed to know was where the power button is and what side to boot the floppy to; and we were all fine!"

So with the new drive to bigger and greater security, Brian K was happy to see that at least one company took a more nostalgic approach. He only wishes that, firstly, it wasn't the company that he just started working for; secondly, that he would have found out about it another way than being asked to join the Weekend Password Change Team; and, thirdly, that they had chosen somewhere other than one of the publicity accessible share drives to store passwords.xls, the spreadsheet which he was to work off of. 

_________________________________________________________________
From: Network Operations 
Sent: Friday, May 26, 2006 3:21 PM
To: Everyone
Subject: 2006 Password Change

It's that time of the year again, time for everyone to choose 
their new passwords. For new employees, we apologize for the 
inconvenience, but this a practice we follow to maintain the
integrity of our network security.

Please reply to this email with the new password(s) you want to
use for the systems outlined below. Starting next Friday evening,
we will work through the weekend to change everyone's passwords
and anticipate being complete by Monday June 5th at 6:00am.

IT IS ESSENTIAL that you reply to this email no later than 
Friday, June 2nd at 5:00. If you fail to reply, you will be 
unable to access all of the systems below.


Windows Logon
All users receiving this email will need to submit a new password
to use to log on to their workstation. This password must be 
exactly 8 characters long and can be any combination of lower
case letters and numbers. No special characters ($,@, etc.) or
proper names (Mary, John, etc.) are allowed.

EmployeeNET+
Only full-time employees will need to submit a new password.
This password will be used to log in to the EmployeeNET+ system
and must be exactly four numbers.

SPM, CRL, and EMS Systems
Only submit a password if you use these systems. The passwords
for these systems need to follow the same guidelines as the 
Windows Logon password, and may be the same or different from
each other.


When we receive your reply, we will let you know if the passwords
meet the guidelines outlined. Please let us know if you have any
questions or concerns. 

Thank you for your continued cooperation,

Network Security & Operations
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