password resets? The one time I had to work with goverment IT they had a call center. They were trying to introduce a VPN product that required a super old version of IE / Java to connect (we literally had to run Windows XP with IE to get this thing to work). This was the "new" software that was like 10 years old when purchased.

I'll skip all the drama - but one thing you could do is call the help desk to get your password reset because of one clusterf after another. It actually worked great. Hi, my username is JoeBob. Ok JoeBob, your new password is XXXX.

That was it. This is a system with super long passwords that had to be changed ridiculously often, and an account lock feature after a few messed up entries which required a password reset and lots of temp staff who came and went among other issues (there were two layers of passwords and people constantly got them confused).

So they had a metric TON of password calls. Despite all the drama with passwords, you could get your password reset just by knowing your username and the number to call for resets. It was brilliant and did save a TON of time, but I had to laugh at the security of the system given your username was derived directly from your name and was widely available in reports etc.

I never mentioned anything though because the thought of a more complicated procedure to deal with for all the staff would have been a nightmare.