My life permanently changed March 13 at exactly 9 a.m.
The University’s Chief Information Security Officer, Jason C. Belford, emailed me, John F. Patterson, to tell me my way of logging in, my way of life, was finite just like the rest of us. It would soon die and be replaced by a stronger, hotter login with more steps.
My one-step login and I tried to cherish our last month together. I felt like the dad in “Fiddler on the Roof,” trying to hold on to his way of life as the winds of change rip it away from him. While most of my friends had updated within minutes of Belford’s first email, I clung to my single-step login. The single step was the way of our ancestors. The true way. My way.
All around me I felt the change seep into University society — closer and closer it crept into my consciousness until I couldn’t hide from it. I felt like Grounds had became an Orwellian nightmare with the posters for the 2-step login staring down at me everywhere I walked. It seemed like every time I went to lunch or the library there was that sinister table, the “Ministry of Information Technology”, watching me and waiting for me to abandon the truth of the one-step login. They didn’t run up to me like the kids handing out fliers. They didn’t have to. They knew I would crack and come to them.
“Sign up for 2-step login, John,” my friends said. “All the cool kids are doing it.” They showed me their Duo Mobile login apps. They showed me the future awaiting me. My login’s expiration date crept closer every day. Sooner and sooner my digital certificate wouldn’t be worth the paper it’s printed on. And it’s not even printed on paper!
I cracked. Belford emailed me again April 3 at a casual 9:09 a.m. He knew I hadn’t converted yet.
“Don't wait until the last minute to protect your accounts!” he wrote.
The problem was that I really wanted to wait until the last minute to protect my accounts.
My resistance to the update was futile. My SIS, Collab and email were hostage. I went into Clemons — essentially Mordor for any self-respecting Alderman loyalist such as myself — to visit the login help desk.
It turned out to be a great time! I actually got a lot more than help updating.
“I haven’t been able to connect to Cavalier WiFi…” I told them.
“O.K.,” they said.
“For a year.” This was the first time I admitted this to anyone.
It felt kind of like admitting an embarrassing ailment to your doctor and then being pleasantly surprised when she’s not even fazed — the tech support people didn’t judge me at all for using LTE for a year. It took about a minute for them to fix it, too. They told me the digital certificate, I so fiercely held on to, wasn’t even working on my phone. I was ready to abandon it.
I’ve been in the 2-step login camp for a few days now. It’s grown on me. I like the phrase “Send me a push” that I get to click on every time I login. I like being able to sleep at night, knowing the cyber-thieves can no longer break into my SIS and see my Intermediate Microeconomics grade.
I’ve changed, just like my login. I’m a fierce proponent of it now. When my friends complain about the extra step, I channel the spirit of Jason C. Belford, defend it fiercely and explain the little box that says “Remember me for 7 days” and why it’s better to be safe than sorry.
I’m starting to see a pattern. This is how change tends to work in my life. I fight it until I accept it, then I end up enjoying it. I find it hilarious that I used to say I wish high school would never end. Now I wake up every morning and remember to be thankful those years ended and college began. Now, the looming changes of my life, mostly entering the job force, feel a lot like college did before I jumped into it — unknown, less fun and more work. I have a feeling it’s going to work out the same way as the changes that have come before it though. We’ll see. In the meantime I’ll have to be sure to enjoy my last year and this adorable green Duo Mobile app. Maybe if I’m lucky they’ll add a third step to login before I graduate!
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