Day 5 - 142 -- Locked Out

An ongoing difficulty with technology seemed to escalate a bit today. I have been locked out of my online account at work -- generally around 4 PM. The first time this happened was almost 2 months ago. Today, I couldn't logon when I got into the office. Once the account was unlocked by IT, I went along my merry way. Within an hour I had to print 3 items and the system refused to let me logon at the printer. Again, a call to IT fixed this. I've been locked out about twice weekly over the past 8 weeks and today was locked out twice. When I left the office, it seemed to be acting odd when I was sending e-mails, so it may have happened again. I'll know for certain when trying to get into the system tomorrow. Sadly, much of what I need to do this week requires me to be online. So, this is more than a minor annoyance. It is a giant pain.

I've heard of others on campus with similar problems, but mine seems to be the worst they are hearing about at the IT desk. They have suggested that one of my remote devices could be trying to log into the account and I haven't updated the password on the device. <sigh> Really? I've explained that the device is not even powered up, so it can't be doing what they say it is doing -- and if it can remotely access things means it can turn itself on and off. That sounds like a much larger problem for mankind -- reminds me of HAL and Dave <grin>.  I've suggested that an external account may be trying to hijack my account. I then heard that someone else in the building had that occur  to them several months ago. I do have an appointment with a tech later in the week, so will see what they see as the underlying problem. Being unable to access my work account could create major difficulties -- really major issues. But, I'll deal with that when and if it occurs.

Being locked out of a place I work daily even if it is in cyberspace or the cloud somewhere, is just plain odd feeling. I found a great blues tune that seems to fit my consternation at some unknown entity locking me out. Enjoy!

Somebody done changed the lock on my door -- B.B. King