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Phil's Ramblings
July 2017
At the end of Steve Kueber’s presentation at
our May meeting, I shared a personal experi-
ence with two-factor authentication (2FA).
(This is any process that requires a second au-
thentication to access an online account, as an
additional safeguard against identity theft by
someone who has managed to learn your ac-
count logon ID and password.)
Like many others, I have set up a 2FA process
for some of my accounts that requires me to
enter a numeric code on the website I am try-
ing to access. That code is sent as a text mes-
sage to my cell phone automatically, when I
first logon to my account. My cell phone
“dings” to let me know the code has been re-
ceived; I then read the code and enter it into
the appropriate block on my login screen. If
everything is done correctly, I am now allowed
into my account.
What I shared with the audience at our May
meeting was a cautionary tale. Several days
before the meeting, my wife asked me about a
“knocking” sound coming from our clothes dry-
er. When I opened the dryer door, here is
what I found (in addition to the clothes):
It turned out that I had left my cell phone in the
dedicated cell phone pocket on my shorts. I
3
checked all the regular pockets before toss-
ing the shorts in the laundry, but forgot about
the cell
phone pocket. So, my cell phone was nice
and clean (and wet) from having gone
through the wash cycles and was now toasty
from having bounced around the dryer for a
few minutes.
Problem one: my cell phone undoubtedly
would not work before being dried out – and
maybe never again.
Problem two: that cell phone number was the
only one on record on my 2FA accounts. To
change that number or add a second num-
ber, I would first have to log on to each of
those accounts. To log on, I would have to
enter the numeric code that they would send
to my (wet) cell phone. Moreover, to simply
access any of those accounts for routine
business purposes would require the same
2FA two-step process.
As it turned out, I was lucky. I packed the
disassembled phone into a Ziploc bag with
uncooked rice for a couple of days, to draw
moisture out of the phone. I then left it on
our porch table in the sun for several days.
Put it back together, and it worked fine. (I
suspect having a phone with a removable
back and battery helped the drying process.
And those folks at Nokia made a tough
phone!)
So, I am back in business with 2FA. Howev-
er, I am now in the process of adding an al-
ternative method to send the numeric code
(email) for each account, just in case my
phone stops working again, is lost or stolen.
Should you dip your toe into 2FA for some of
your online accounts, I suggest that you re-
member my tale of woe and set up at least
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