How do you keep track of your IDs, codes, and PWs?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I literally have several hundred IDs and passwords to various sites. Fifteen-twenty years ago, I would use essentially the same ID and password (or variant, if someone insisted on multiple digits or whatever), and the same answers to questions like my city of birth, mother’s maiden name, or childhood best friend. This would apply to my ID for my mutual fund company that has most of our money or a login to our local movie theatre.</p>

<p>About ten years ago, I became very leery that if someone hacked into one obscure vendor where I had put in personal info, they could potentially do way too much damage, and went about changing all my passwords and hints. For the top couple of dozen accounts that I consider critical there is practically nothing that is the same, which means I don’t have much of a chance of knowing what my first car was supposed to be for credit card x’s account. The problem is keeping track of all these IDs, codes, and hints. What do you folks do?</p>

2

<p>Some people suggest having the same password “base” but including other letters at the front or end. For example, yahoo password might be Y1234 and, LLBean may be LLB1234, etc.</p>

3

<p>I have a file (that is password protected) that contains passwords for each site. I have the file backed up in a USB and hard drive.</p>

4

<p>I use KeePass
[KeePass</a> Password Safe](<a href=“http://keepass.info/]KeePass”>http://keepass.info/)</p>

5

<p>KeePass user also</p>

6

<p>Oh, sure, like we’re going to tell you that ;)</p>

<p>ETA: Love how on TV they can always figure out the critical password(s) in the nick of time…</p>

7

<p>The password is always Swordfish.
;)</p>

8

<p>I use an old fashioned rolodex. I no longer use it much for phone numbers.</p>

9

<p>I put mine in a binder. (seriously) If someone breaks into the house, I have bigger problems than password security.</p>

10

<p>

That’d be fairly easy to hack - it doesn’t sound like a good idea.</p>

<p>

That could very well not be true about the 'bigger problems with the break-in. For example, if you use online banking and have your credentials readily available in a binder (or in a non-encrytped file on your PC), one could then hack into your bank account and transfer your money out of there. That’s potentially a lot worse than stealing some old appliance, loose cash laying around, or a used power tool. Of course, there are other things they could do as well such as credit card fraud, buying things from your online accounts like Amazon, etc.</p>

<p>Writing this in the clear in a rolodex, binder, a file on your PC, etc. is all a bad idea.</p>

11

<p>I have 2 Apps on my iPhone that I use to store passwords and other info- KeyRing and SafeWallet. Both are good. I am guilty of using a stock set of passwords and really do intend to change them up soon. It’s all such a pain.</p>

12

<p>

</p>

<p>The PC file suggested here is encrypted and password-protected. What were you suggesting to store the passwords in the cloud? I have my opinions on that but I’d rather store my password database in my own file than floating out there in some server that can be easily compromised.</p>

13

<p>I keep them all in my head.</p>

<p>Then, when I have to access a given site I just hit the link, “Forgot Your Parssword?” or its variant and wait for the e-mail alllowing me to change my ID/password.</p>

14

<p>I used a password keeper on my phone for awhile but then I forget the password to open the password keeper.</p>

15

<p>Not that I use any of these, but I thought this might be helpful for all of us:</p>

<p>[Account</a> Hacked? These Password Managers Keep Your Everything Safe](<a href=“Account Hacked? These Password Managers Keep Your Everything Safe”>Account Hacked? These Password Managers Keep Your Everything Safe)</p>

<p>[Which</a> Password Manager Is The Most Secure?](<a href=“Which Password Manager Is The Most Secure?”>Which Password Manager Is The Most Secure?)</p>

<p>[The</a> Best Password Managers | PCMag.com](<a href=“http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2407168,00.asp]The”>The Best Password Managers for 2023 | PCMag)</p>

16

<p>I remember most of my PWs; I keep a spreadsheet at work with all of them. With security questions, I keep it simple. First pet? Fluffy. First car? Fluffy. Favorite teacher? You guessed it – Fluffy.</p>

17

<p>I’m guilty of keeping basically the same user id and password for everything because I can’t remember. I just change them about every 6 months. </p>

<p>Hadn’t heard of the password keepers, so may try that, thanx!</p>

18

<p>My bank sends us a code on the (pre-registered) cell phone before executing transfers or certain transactions, so there is another layer of external security. We have been doing 95% of our banking online for the past 10+ years and have never had a problem. We do NOT have passwords in a file on our computer. </p>

<p>A couple of times our credit card company has had to replace a card, but all but one of those were data security issues at the credit card company and affected many more people than just us. Once we had someone charge stuff from the Apple Store on one of our cards, but DH noticed the tx within three hours (esp. since we did not own any Apple products!).</p>

<p>That said, I don’t do credit card transactions on public networks.</p>

19

<p>

That’s another ‘feature’ that makes hacking easier. If one can manage to get to your email then they can just do a ‘password reset’ function on the other sites to end up hacking into those. This makes the email PW one of the most important ones.</p>

<p>

That’s good - that’s one way to protect the passwords.</p>

20

<p>I store them in an encrypted application on my laptop. The laptop has offsite backup (under my control - not on someone’s server). I generally memorize several long strings of numbers and then mix them together along with typically an upper-case and lower-case letter and sometimes throw in an non-alphanumeric character.</p>