Mill Creek Beacon - Your Hometown News Source

It occurred to me a few years ago that if I’d known, as a little boy, that in the future I’d use so many passwords every day, I would have imagined a much cooler life.

I’d be Steve McQueen or Sean Connery, wandering through my luxury apartment high above Central Park, planning my next caper. I’d practice dodging laser beams and hanging from the ceiling by a thin wire.

I could make a mean martini. I’d spend my spare time practicing cryptography and cracking passwords.

So let me tell you a story.

I worked in a hospital once, a graveyard shift that began around 10 p.m. I sat at a...