The Wife is a very cautious person and likes to keep a watchful eye on everything. This not only includes me but also our digital security. We thought we were doing quite well with our passwords against the kids. they were too young to read with any speed. plus they couldn’t work it out as a keyboard is not the normal alphabet.
Our first password for the home laptop was something quick and easy for both The Wife and I to remember. And it kept the kids off the computer. Unfortunately number 1 learnt to read and she got the hang of the password quite quickly.
we should have made it a bit more tricky than – home
all lower case which was an oversight. As number 1 held it in great delight to proclaim that she had worked out the password.
“i can read, you know!”
We decided to beef up our digital defenses and we upgraded to a fiendish mixture of alphanumerics with symbols. including a personalised acronym and a key date, summed. The Wife made it using her own logic and reasoning. DeepBlue would take a million years to crack it.
We slept very peacefully in the knowledge that our 2 offspring could never roam the internet and empty our bank account while playing Pokemon on our laptop. oh happy days.
Some time later, probably many months, if not dozens of months later I did a double take as i saw number 2 playing away on the laptop. This could not be possible.
I quickly confronted her and asked how she had got in to the laptop.
“did mummy let you go on her computer?”
“i’ll ask her…” I said with my – you know i’ll ask her and if she doesn’t agree you’ll be in really big trouble look.
number 2 says sheepishly, “no”
the look worked.
“so how did you get on it?”.
“I know the password” number 2 admits.
“do you?” i ask mystified.
“yes”
I can’t even remember it as it is so complicated. How could a five year old?
“how?” I asked.
“oh, I kept watching and remembering the next number”.
“and i wrote it down in my maths book so i wouldn’t forget”.
128 bit encryption bolhouks