introduction
this is an use case of how to tackle the problem of suddenly having database accounts being autolocked by oracle. account autolocking in oracle may have a couple of root causes. at a first spot and for whatever reason you think *you* got hit by this, somebody may try to break your installation by some sort of brute force connect attempts. at a second one, and this is the most common case for intranet installations as to my experience, somebody/some application may use obsolete or wrong login credentials.
however, at this friday night where you jump around manually unlocking accounts over and over, the following might be your save of the day. please note that my first understanding of the topic was, with appreciation, advocated by this post “How to Audit Potential Attempts to Break a Username/Password” from Ayyu. below is an extended version, if you like.