He wrote himself into a corner. Somehow he needs to wrap up a spiralling plot in one book…

It’s never gonna happen.

Also flatten (sometimes used conjunction with “pave”) it to denote the systems is getting reimagined.

As someone who manages multiple identity systems - tell your IT to get their act together. Most of my environments we force reaith once a week (and that just a quick enter your password/TOTP code). Otherwise if you can log into your computer we trust you are who you say you are (note: we have some downright scary and invasive stuff on the network so we know if you start accessing stuff you should not). The sensitive/scary stuff is a lot faster (activity timers), but the teams involved know why it’s set this way (and where involved in setting the maximum durations).

If you feel like poking a bear. NIST 800-63B is the US Federal guidance on passwords. In the past this guidance said to have long passwords and rotate them. Now they say 8 characters and never change (along with using MFA).