Beware of people whose only marketable skills are their loyalty and their ability to follow rules to the letter.

And the Medieval Warm Period...? And do you honestly believe that the sun is a totally static object that hasn't changed over time?

How did the world warm up and cool down before then? Perhaps that is relevant?

I could have told you that based on how they handle, or don't, the guys who go racing up and down the highway at 100+MPH and who obstruct highway traffic to do their tricks.

It's pathetic, not to mention a menace.

...would it have been as big of a deal?

You are out of touch with reality. It's awesome that your company is so enlightened, but I've worked as a consultant at many many places and I know what things look like in the trenches.

Oh, and I'm not dispensing security advice. I'm telling you what's going on in the real world. Whether you listen or not is your choice, but it doesn't change anything.

When in doubt, blame the user and not the system.

Pretty standard.

Because I am a normal human being, not a programmer, and I can only remember so many username and password combinations.

P.S. I am trying to distribute insight into how ordinary people think and work. Based on comments like yours, that is something that seems to be sorely needed.

Welcome to the real world where people can't remember different username and password combinations for different sites.
Deal with it.

Sites that rule standards characters in or out are driving down security because all of the standards vary. Maybe that is by design, to prevent standard passwords, but the end result for 99% of the population isn't something that is more secure.

In terms of standard passwords, I'd like to introduce you to the ordinary person who can't handle a different password for every site. I can't for sites that I don't regularly visit, like healthcare.gov.

I've NEVER seen a site require a number in the username. How 1997 is that?

The password requirements state...

"It can't contain your username or any of these characters = ? ( ) ‘ " / \ &"

It just so happens that I use one of those characters in my standard secure password. I've never had a problem with that character before except for one site (which ironically is my bank, and which forces me to use a password that is less secure than my standard password due to its banning special characters.

Seriously, all of these different password standards are a huge cause of security problems.

So I'm in the process of trying to sign up for healthcare.gov. I'm already having problems, because it won't accept my e-mail address as my username, even though it would appear to fit the criteria.

"The username is case sensitive. Choose a username that is 6-74 characters long and must contain a lowercase or capital letter, a number, or one of these symbols _.@/-"

If they are having problems explaining the most basic things, I'm not hopeful.

The site is also less secure for me because none of my standard, extremely secure, never before had a problem with them passwords will work for it. That will force me to write it down, making the site inherently less secure.

5 Minutes later...

LOL. What an absolute piece of garbage of a web site. I tried to change my username to just the username of my email address and the site says it's invalid. It should be valid based on the instructions, but no joy. If they actually want the username to contain a number, then that's a joke; it's something I've never seen before on ANY website EVER.

WHO LAID OUT THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS SITE? JOE BIDEN? HAVE THEY NEVER EVEN USED THE INTERNET?

When sites come up with new, unusual standards for usernames and passwords (e.g. must contain a %, *, or ^), then they are making the site less secure because they are increasing the odds that people will have to write down their usernames and passwords.

"...successful completion of courses are sometimes held hostage in exchange for mandatory participation in research, as in this case study of a Coursera MOOC. Such behavior is not tolerated in 'real' college courses..."

Signing up for one or more experiments was a requirement of every undergrad psych class I took.