Team Partners Telecommunications

Stop OTPs from slowing your team down

Posted on Jul 28, 2026

Even the most computer challenged amongst us will probably have come across the phrase ‘hash tag’ and understand that it is represented by the motif ‘#’. What it does is act as a collection point. If I’m on a social media platform, for instance, and want to find out what’s been posted about gerbils, I can simply type ‘#gerbils’ and every post about gerbils is listed for me.

Why are we telling you this? It’s because this month we’re celebrating the use of that most annoying of security layer, the one-time password, OTP, and offering you the opportunity to save yourself a great deal of potential frustration as you face the challenge of discovering which of the many computers and devices in your office a time limited OTP has been sent to. But first…

…and not to bore you, but you may be wondering how the word ‘hash’ the breakfast dish of a mix of chopped meat, potatoes and onions ended up being the name for a security password. And the answer lies in the root word, ‘hacher’ the French for ‘to chop’, and for this you have to thank a tech developer named Chris Messina who, in 2007, proposed using the "hash" symbol on Twitter to tag and organize groups. He combined the two to coin the term "hashtag", which simply means a tag preceded by a hash symbol.

Where all this becomes relevant to the subject of OTPs is that the process of ‘hashing’, as it’s called, converts any amount of data (like a password, a document, or an image) into a short, fixed-length string of characters. It acts as a unique digital fingerprint. If the original data changes even slightly, the resulting hash changes completely. Add to this the fact that it’s impossible to reverse engineer a hash to recover the original data, that the same input will always produce the same output and it’s very fast and one understands why hashes are so useful for password security and, incidentally, data integrity. Websites save the hash of your password, not the actual password, and if you’re downloading a large data file and want to be sure that it’s as sent, run it through a hash function. It’s the perfect solution to the problem of password security and integrity.

Having said which and as mentioned above, OTPs can be frustrating, especially when you add in the extra nuisance of being given a limited time to complete the OTP procedure. But!

We have the answer! Especially for those who need access to OTPs for their client accounts. All that rushing around, trying to find the one ‘office’ mobile that all OTPs are sent to, and then having to tell the relevant staff member, who’s potentially working from home, what the number is before it expires…forget it. What we can do for you is provide a new mobile number and set it up so that every text it receives is converted to an email and sent to the right staff member, so that the OTP goes directly to the correct place in seconds.

Clever, isn’t it! If this sounds useful, give us a call on 033 33 58 33 33!