An IT guy's view of SoFla Mass Transit IT infrastructure

Today I received an email from Tri-Rail with the information I needed about my EDP member account and to sign up for the EDP program.

The instructions tell me to do the following.  I was really surprised when I generated my new password with LastPass that the Member passwords have a maximum length limit of only 5 characters!  At least this is better than Sunpass' four character pin code limit.  This and the consistent wordpress SQL errors that display on the webpage lead me to believe that the TriRail website could use some technical review.

To register and access the online feature, please visit the website at www.tri-rail.com and follow these simple steps:

1. Click Employer Discount Program
2. Select Member Login.
3. Go to First Time Users Box and type account number, create password and answer one of the validation questions, then press enter.
4. You will returned to the EDP Login page. Enter the account number and password in the first login box to access your EDP Member home page.

Some SQL errors on the TriRail Website indicate it needs some IT TLC.  Which made me curious about a few other security aspects of the Tri-Rail website and EDP tools.

But you do not need to worry about the "F" grade from SSLLABS.COM for the Tri-Rail SSL Certificates, the TriRail Member Login page is not secured with https/ssl, you need to worry that your password and other information is in the clear.  Not that Tri-Rail is sending much private information about you other than name, address, salary range, age, gender, race.

 

How to get the Tri-Rail VIP alerts on your phone for the trains you travel

Today I was speaking with a colleague who wanted a way to get the Tri-Rail alerts on his cell phone.  Tri-Rail has an alerting service that sends emails to your email account.  Here is the link to the VIP Alerting service http://www.tri-rail.com/vip/vip_form.asp

To get the alerts on my cell phone I configured my Gmail account to forward emails as text messages to my phone.  Gmail includes a feature called filters.  Filters are normally used to classify email into folders/labels.  In this situation I used the filter to look for emails from the alerting system and then look for the trains that I normally ride.

I setup two filters, one for all VIP alerts and one for VIP Alerts for the trains I am interested in learning about.

Filter #1 - needs to be created first so that this filter executes first.  This filter forwards the email to yourphonenumber@txt.att.net.  This filter also put this email into the folder "VIP Alerts/My Train Alerts"