the most over the top security ever
We’re all used these days to things like two factor authorisation, face recognition and captcha codes when accessing stuff online. It’s all there to help us from being scammed and I appreciate that.
But a recent experience left me completely flummoxed.
I’ve decided to keep hold of an old MacBook Pro, as from Mac OS 27 being released soon, plenty of applications I rely on will no longer work on Apple Silicone machines. So, it makes sense does it not to hang on to a legacy computer.
Anyway, I wanted to download a couple of things just to make the thing a little more usable, so set about getting my Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft Office bits and bobs installed.
Creative Cloud? No problem. I logged into my account; they sent me an authorisation code and within a few minutes I’d downloaded my subscription apps.
Microsoft Office? Oh dear.
I signed into my account online. No problem; authorisation code sent to my phone; job done. But then…
Firstly, I was handed a puzzle to solve to prove I’m not a robot. I had to match a shadow of an image to the actual image. Simple enough you’d think except that all the different options were pretty well identical. And if you got one wrong (which was inevitable) then they added another one on, and on, and on until I got to having to solve five puzzles, all near identical and all impossible.
After failing this first test, I was then presented with another. A picture of an animal on the left side of the screen together with an indistinct shape on the other which you had to match directionally. Again, this sounds easy until you realise all the options provided differed by something like 0.1 of a degree in rotation!
After tearing what hair I have left out, I somehow managed to gain access to the download your apps section. But before I could go any further, I had to confirm my email address, verify it with yet another code (sent to the same address though so what use is that security wise) and then, yes, you’ve guessed right, go through the whole robot / human identification debacle all over again.
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This is patently absurd. I reckon it would be easier to access my government’s date base than use Microsoft Excel! Is it any wonder people are migrating away from Windows in their droves. What with this, the constant updates and attempts to sell you stuff and the actual user experience I’m surprised anyone is left using it.
That’s why years ago I changed over to Apple computers exclusively at home. Do I need Microsoft Office? Well, yes, as the Mac alternatives aren’t great and I really can’t be bothered with searching for the best free alternative (e.g. Libre Office).
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