Password please?

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 54, No. 1, January February 2012, Page 5 Editorials
By: David R. Richardson, MD

"Your password will expire in 10 days; do you want to change it?” This message flash­ed on the computer screen at the hospital when I tried to log on. 

It is a little like asking “You are going to expire in 10 days, do you want to die now?” Why would I want to change my password early and why 10 days? Why not ask me if I want to change it 20 or 30 days in advance? Heck, why not prompt me to change it as soon as I choose the new one. Maybe the message should be, “You have just chosen a new password. Do you want to change it now before you forget it?”

This changing of passwords seems so arbitrary. For example, I was in­vited over to a friend’s house for dinner but when I got there they weren’t home. We knew their gate code, so we went in, and since their back door was unlocked we opened it. At this point their alarm went off shortly followed by their phone ringing. “Hello,” I answered.

“This is the alarm company; could you please give me the password?”

“Um, is it ‘chickens’?”

“No sir, it isn’t.”

“Can I change it to ‘chickens’?” 

At that point they called the police.

I wonder if we are really safer having all these passwords. I am re­minded of Dr Richard Feynman’s evaluation of security during the Second World War. Dr Feynman won the Nobel Prize for physics. As a young man, he was invited to help the war effort and worked on the Manhattan Project. 

He became the go-to guy for safe cracking and later admitted that all the safes at this top-secret facility came with the same preset combination that only about 5% of people had changed. He also discovered a hole in the fence, and would take great pleasure in going out through it and returning through the checkpoint over and over again, giving the guards fits. 

I realize we have to protect our patients’ medical information, but why do I have to change my password and why can’t I use any of my previous 10 passwords? 

If I were a computer hacker trying to make a living I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be wasting my energy on the Fraser Health site. I don’t think hackers are thinking, “I know, I’ll find out my neighbor’s stool sample re­sults and then blackmail him for millions. Once the word gets out that he has giardiasis his life will be ruined (insert maniacal laughter).” 

Personally, I haven’t heard of anyone hacking into hospital computer systems to ac­cess records. I think hackers are probably focusing more on financial sites such as banks and credit card companies. Point of interest: I don’t have to change my online banking password, and if I do change it I can use a previous one.

I don’t know about you but I have so many passwords for so many sites I am in danger of not remembering any of them. I have put them on my phone and home computer, but what if they crash or what if I can’t remember the passwords to these electronic holding sites? 

As I age I am a little afraid that when I expire, and if I do manage to make it to heaven, Saint Peter will say, “Welcome, good work! Now if I could please have your password.” 
—DRR

David R. Richardson, MD. Password please?. BCMJ, Vol. 54, No. 1, January, February, 2012, Page(s) 5 - Editorials.


Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

Leave a Reply