DEALS OF THE WEEK

at least one special character and three numbers and must contain at least 7 characters.” I had a programmer friend who had worked out a very good system, in my estimation at any rate, to overcome the hurdle of trying to remember all those passwords without writing them down – the risk, of course, of having 50 passwords to remember. He had a formula which was his own secret code – something like the fourth letter of this third child plus his mother’s birth year plus the third three letters of the location being accessed (or something similar) so that it had a pattern but always had elements that were unique to the specific situation. And with a little thought, it could be made even more one-of-a-kind, so that if, for example, the location (YouTube, for example) started with a letter in the second half of the alphabet, it would be the third letter of the second child in his family – thus becoming even more particular to a given situation and harder to break, yet no harder to remember once the code was devised. The one challenge was that you had to be rigorous in your application of your formula, else it would be pointless.

While I still like the system, as is always the case with things technological, the proliferation of technology itself may hold another solution.

Who reading this article doesn’t have multiple devices? The most Luddite among us, or the most unwilling to “adopt” is likely to have at least a smart phone and a tablet and/or PC (at least). That provides the ingredients for a “passkey.”

Actually, the germ of a passkey has been around and in use for quite a while. We have had “recovery” accounts for other accounts for a long time. This was typically an email account to which you would send a “lost password” or “recover password” email. Assuming only you had access to that account, if you couldn’t remember your password, you could reset it using this message.

Passkeys take this idea, but use it as the “password.” When you log on to an account, you don’t enter a password – you send a request to an “authenticator.” This would typically be a smart phone, or possibly another device with a notification system of some kind on it.

Then, you would be requested to log in to the account you’re trying to access on your authenticator, using typically a PIN or perhaps (and probably safest) a form of biometric (thumb print, facial recognition, for example).

Once that is done, your account, on whatever device you requested access, would be granted. Anyone attempting to hack into your account would need a) the account; b) the authenticator; c) access to your . (Cue the stolen “eyeballs” or “thumbs” memes here.)

It certainly makes sense if a given account offers two-step authentication to go ahead and use it – even if it’s just occasionally asking for a secret question, or to send a verification code to a mobile phone every so often when you log in. Certainly request, if available, that an unrecognized device or IP address be challenged with a two-step authentication for your protection.

PREP TIME 10 min.

TOTAL TIME

10 hrs. 40 min.

SERVINGS

8 MARCH from Allrecipes

Recipe

Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

Ingredients

1/2 lb. baby carrots

1/2 lb. small yellow potatoes

1 sweet onion, cut into bite-size pieces

4 cups water

Directions

4 3/4 lbs. corned beef brisket, with spice packet

3 tbsp. onion powder

3 tbsp. garlic powder

1 bottle Irish stout beer

1 med. head cabbage, quartered

Step 1 • Spread baby carrots, potatoes, and onion into the bottom of a slow cooker crock. Pour water over the vegetables.

Step 2 • Season the lean side of the corned beef brisket with onion powder and garlic powder. Set seasoned brisket onto the vegetables with the fatty side facing upwards. Pour beer over the brisket. Sprinkle contents of the spice packet over the brisket.

Step 3 • Cook on low for 10 hours.

Step 4 • Remove brisket to a cutting board. Stir cabbage into the liquid and vegetable mixture remaining in the slow cooker.

Step 5 • Cook cabbage on high until tender, 30 to 45 minutes.

Step 6 • Slice corned beef and serve with cabbage mixture.