SecurE*Trade

I spotted an ad earlier on CNN—apparantely E*Trade is now using a security system which involves a keychain toy which generates strings of digits every 60 seconds which are used in lieu of passwords. The ad says it's, "convenient and revolutionary."

I agree—if, by "convenient," they mean, "pain in the ass;" and by "revolutionary," they mean, "not revolutionary at all."

Behold, the SecureID. I hate these damned things. Many folks who work at LANL (and elsewhere) are familiar with these little fuckers—they similarly generate keystrings every minute. These things aren't too bad when all you do is log in to a machine once in the morning, but they're seriously obnoxious when you log in and out all day long; doubly so when you get timed out and have to bust the card out again.