Password Management Matters Everywhere… Even the North Pole

We have the pleasure of working with many businesses, some of whom take more advantage of our remote services than others. We wanted to take a few moments to discuss one of our more discreet client organizations and a challenge we helped them resolve. Hopefully, sharing this won’t land us on the naughty list.

As co-manager of the North Pole’s IT department, Jangle had recently spent more time in every other department since crunch time had started this year. Just this morning, he was putting out figurative fires in Toy Assembly and Elven Resources, and a not-so-figurative fire in Coal Acquisition. Next, he was on his way to Ribbons and Bows to try and figure out why the automated program was suddenly tying packages with knots that looked suspiciously like obscene gestures… not what an impressionable kid should see on Christmas morning.

As he hustled through the hallways of the workshop, he crossed paths with his co-manager, Ginger. She looked stressed, powering through the cup of hot cocoa that Jangle now associated with her. Catching her eye, Jangle held up four fingers, looking at her quizzically. Without breaking her stride, Ginger shook her head, all while taking another slug of the chocolatey beverage and holding up five, quickly flashing another two fingers. The two passed wordlessly, her heading towards Coal Acquisition as he continued toward Ribbons and Bows.

Jangle felt his eyebrows rise. Seven mugs of cocoa already? Ginger must be stressed today.

The two didn’t cross paths again until lunchtime and the post-lunch department meeting they established to inspire better collaboration amongst the elves that had been added to their team over the years. They’d had too many instances of multiple elves showing up to solve the same problem. As the brief meeting ended, Ginger suddenly received a call on her VoiP—Voice over Icicle Protocol—smartphone. She listened briefly, before responding to whomever was on the other end:

“Roger that, we’ll be right there.”

After she hung up, GInger quickly moved to Jangle’s side and quietly murmured in his pointed ear.

“The big man needs help with his passwords again.”

Jangle nodded, suddenly feeling very tired.

Santa’s ongoing battle with remembering his passwords had reached its third week, with a call for help coming to the IT department at least once every few days. Jangle remembered how many times he or Ginger had to reinforce that Santa couldn’t just use Blitzen123 for everything, and once that message got through, the two of them had to work really hard to convince the boss not to just add his passwords to his twice-checked list.

Knowing she’d have a good idea, Jangle turned to his co-manager. “So, what should we suggest next?”

Ginger took a moment to breathe in the scent of Rudolph-knew-what-number cup of cocoa. Opening her eyes, she looked to Jangle, focused on the problem at hand.

“Well, let’s break down the issue. Santa doesn’t want to have to remember more than one password, and honestly, I can’t blame him. The guy manages to remember millions of children, whether or not they were good, what they wanted from us, and where each kid lives. I understand why he wants keeping track of his passwords to be as easy as possible.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. Have you talked to Directive about it yet, to see what they think?”

Ginger sipped her cocoa again, adding more steam to her perpetually fogged glasses. “No, but I have a feeling you did.”

Jangle nodded. They really did make a good team. “Yeah, I did. they recommended we set the big guy up with a password manager.”

Ginger paused. “That sounds so familiar.”

“Yeah, it’s basically a secure software that lets you safely store records of your passwords, usernames, and the websites they apply to. It’s actually pretty cool, and it kind of sounds perfect for the big man and his challenges. He could use super secure passwords for everything, but only need to remember the one password that gets him into the vault. We could even set up shared records for everyone in the Pole, based on their roles and needs, so that shared resources could be more effectively… well, shared.”

“You know, that sounds perfect.”

Jangle nodded. “Yeah. I already reached out to Directive to see what they thought our best option would be. They’ll be reaching out to me pretty shortly.”

Ginger smiled, the steam from her cocoa curling up around her freckled cheeks. “That sounds perfect! Let’s go pitch it to the big man.”

While we love helping our friends up north, we’d be more than happy to assist you as well. Give us a call at 607.433.2200 to find out what we can offer you and your business.