{"id":423,"date":"2008-11-07T11:37:51","date_gmt":"2008-11-07T10:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cyberelk.net\/tim\/?p=423"},"modified":"2014-05-20T09:09:12","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T08:09:12","slug":"utility-companies-and-passwords","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cyberelk.net\/tim\/2008\/11\/07\/utility-companies-and-passwords\/","title":{"rendered":"Utility companies and passwords"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cyberelk.net\/tim\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/authentication-100.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"424\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/cyberelk.net\/tim\/2008\/11\/07\/utility-companies-and-passwords\/authentication-100\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/cyberelk.net\/tim\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/authentication-100.png\" data-orig-size=\"100,100\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Authentication\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/cyberelk.net\/tim\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/authentication-100.png\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-424\" title=\"Authentication\" src=\"https:\/\/cyberelk.net\/tim\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/authentication-100.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a>Ever since I heard it was possible I&#8217;d been meaning to set up passwords with my utility companies so that they can verify their identity to me when they turn up at my door.\u00a0 This week I tried it with my gas supplier.\u00a0 They said they don&#8217;t do that, but don&#8217;t worry, it&#8217;s fine, I can just check their ID card and phone up to verify that the name on the ID card is one of their employees\/contractors.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m a little surprised, to say the least.\u00a0 Anyone can make an ID card with their photo on it, and if all someone needs to do to gain trust is find out the name of a single employee of a very large company something&#8217;s not right!<\/p>\n<p>So I was thinking, what secret do I and the utility company share already?\u00a0 How about my account number with them?\u00a0 I never throw bills away so that seems reasonably secure, although I don&#8217;t know how securely they treat it themselves.<\/p>\n<p>If that was alright to use as a password, wouldn&#8217;t they have suggested asking callers for that when I was on the phone to them trying to set up a password?\u00a0 What am I missing?<\/p>\n<p>Has anyone else tried setting up a password like that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ever since I heard it was possible I&#8217;d been meaning to set up passwords with my utility companies so that they can verify their identity to me when they turn up at my door.\u00a0 This week I tried it with my gas supplier.\u00a0 They said they don&#8217;t do that, but don&#8217;t worry, it&#8217;s fine, I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[12,20],"class_list":["post-423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thoughts","tag-electricity","tag-security"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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