Thanks to Rory Sutherland

I assume this insane explosion in demands for verification is a response to the threat from AI. On the other hand it could just be general corporate paranoia what annoys me is that there isn’t much variation in security between sites which really matter (such as your email and your banking applications) and sites like my electricity bill (where, to be honest, I wouldn’t be that bothered if someone hacked into them). I spend about £4 a day on electricity on average and I don’t care who knows it. I suppose if I had a cannabis farm in the attic, I might feel differently.

— Rory Sutherland (@rorysutherland) October 31, 2026

No one can consider them immune from cyber-theft, not when those savvy crypto investors have $6.3 bn stolen from ,from some professional hackers in North Korea. I had been lead to believe that North Korea had not discovered electricity so am now adding it to my cyber threats that I can use to stay awake.

Rory’s post could be shortened to “do I feel worth hacking” and to be honest I don’t know whether my verified self is going to let itself be frightened till and to death. Here’s Rory’s full tweet (in case you are worried about clicking through without having Rory or yourself verified.

I assume this insane explosion in demands for verification is a response to the threat from AI. On the other hand it could just be general corporate paranoia what annoys me is that there isn’t much variation in security between sites which really matter (such as your email and your banking applications) and sites like my electricity bill (where, to be honest, I wouldn’t be that bothered if someone hacked into them). I spend about £4 a day on electricity on average and I don’t care who knows it. I suppose if I had a cannabis farm in the attic, I might feel differently.

The delight of the post is that it uses laughter to dissipate lingering paranoia you may have had after you did the clicking.

We are taught not to repeat the use of one password for everything but I suspect that we need a school lesson to be taught how to devise passwords that are different for each site and service.

Then there are the rules devised to ensure our passwords are strong enough for us to forget.

Then there are boards of photographs of what might be and what are including images of cars, busses and kittens. Failure to get the right photos ticked relegates you to suspicious scammer. We do not know for sure that if we can’t identify ourselves we are ourselves.  We shut down the application and hope “better luck next time”.

My particular worry is not electricity bills but the sites that tell me there’s a message to be picked up. Most worrying are the various health sites that I’m apart of and constantly frightened by them. Following them are sites that hold promises of tickets that I’ve paid for (from theatre to travel), they too remind me I have messages including those that remind you that you failed to travel or go to the theatre on the day you booked).

I am sure that we will look back on these days as the “bad old days” when we have a way of being recognised by holding our device to our face as standard.  Though right now I am not sure that I’ll pass face verification till I get my stitches  out!

Perhaps when the next generation are born, they’ll get branded to be known as who they really are.