I was notified that I can no longer log in to my Social Security account online using the username and password that I have been using for some fifteen years, as they are transitioning to a government-wide system at "Login,gov." The notice provided a link for me to use to create an account at the new log in portal.
I just spent almost fifteen minutes attempting to create that account without success. I can design and create websites, but I cannot create an account at Login.gov.
It did accept my email address for the username, which is a seriously insecure method of entry into a sensitive account. The old SSI portal did not allow use of the email address for the username, and neither does Medicare, so the government is going to a new system which is less secure than the old one. Interesting.
The even more interesting part of the exercise came when trying to create the password. The only requirement is that it be twelve characters long and that it matches when you type it twice. Twelve characters is pretty short, and why does it not require a mixture of upper and lower case? Special characters? Numbers? Again, where is the concern for security?
In the end, it didn't matter, because it would not accept anything I entered as a password. We get the government we elect.
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