security
Like it or not we are dependant upon IT systems, we could not manage without them. Just about every aspect of our daily life is recorded on a hard disc somewhere.
Of course we are told to protect our most sensitive data with a password. How many different passwords do you use and just how secure are they?
"greenrabbit" is not a secure password, "Green.Rabbit17536" is a lot, lot better but hardly memorable so you need to write it down, compound that will several others and you now need security for that bit of paper!
Using just one "universal" password is a really bad idea, should someone learn of it you have a serious problem.
Mind you, when we are all recognised by a retina scan I hate to think what will happen when that system goes bad!
Banks probably have the most annoying of all security systems - I have been locked out of my account on more than one occasion because the bank got it wrong! Most recently when they had quite happily given out a substantial amount in fraudulent transactions my bank asked me who I had my mobile phone with as part of their check. The call centre operative disagreed with me, he used a fraudulent "top up" to test me with! The result being that I was one of the few people that didn't have access to my own account, well at least, that's what it seemed like at the time.
One improvement on the password scene recently, aimed at avoiding call centre staff seeing an account password, is to ask for particular letters/numbers from you password by position. Better security, yes but many of us (me included) need to write a password down so we can get the characters right.
There is no easy answer but as the criminal fraternity get smarter our issues become compound. To save money, institutions move their call centres offshore where we all know security is not the best. Even those companies with UK call centres probably have their data centres offshore so your data could be just about anywhere on the planet.