<p>“In fact, seven of the 20 most frequently found passwords are just strings sequential numbers starting with 1. Theres 1234 (#16), 12345 (#20), 1234567 (#8), 12345678 (#3), 123456789 (#6) and the people who just run their finger down the number row with 1234567890 (#13).” </p>
<p>If hackers can just gain access to your password without “guessing” the character string it doesn’t really matter how easy or tough your chosen series of symbols is. I am changing my password to “comeonin”</p>
<p>I’m one of those whose paranoia about passwords has really messed me up. In the early 90s, I only used one p/w, but then I didn’t have very many accounts to begin with. Then things got complicated, and now I have several hundred accounts from financial institutions that have a significant chunk of my assets to some random newspaper that I needed an account to do a one time read, and everything in-between. And these days many (most?) sites also have your 3 questions on your first pet’s name, your best friend in school, city of birth, etc.</p>
<p>Being afraid that someone hacking into my local whatever club’s site and finding out my password and answers to questions about me, I began using unique passwords for any account of consequence, as well as different and incorrect answers to the questions. Where this leaves me is that if I need to log into, say my auto insurance account, I would have no clue as to what password or answers to use.</p>
<p>To get access to the cheat sheet, I have to keep it in a protected file on a PC or my phone, which would give my whole life away if I had to give it for repair, on a site that keeps passwords, which, if it got hacked, would do the same, or keep it on paper… At one time about 20 years ago, I was dumb enough to keep my p/w in an email folder. </p>
<p>I still haven’t figured out what’s the best. In fact I’m scared even to use some of the financial sites where they will accept your ID and P/W from all your financial accounts so that they can present a composite analysis of your holdings.</p>
<p>And yes, I plead guilty to using codes like 123x and my throw-away email address for unimportant sites.</p>
<p>Well, I’m not sure if what I do is a good idea or not.</p>
<p>I keep an Excel spreadsheet with all of my passwords on my computer, but I’ve “coded” the passwords. For example, on a site where I use my mother’s maiden name, I refer to it as “[Mother’s sister’s] maiden name” or [Grandmother’s] married name." I know what this means, but hopefully a bad guy won’t. I also started using a PW that is my mother’s year of birth plus her first name, in a special order.</p>
<p>You could be like my dad and take important historical dates from history and mix them up. It used to crack me up that that password for our house alarm growing up was things like 2151, because he was afraid that if he just used the date of the Magna Carta a thief would guess it. Because when you break into the house the first number you’re going to try in those 30 seconds will some random historical date.</p>
<p>I absolutely HATE passwords. You really can’t use the same one for all sites since they all have individual requirements for an acceptable password. I too have a spread sheet with ALL my passwords written down and it drives me crazy having to refer to it all the time. Why can’t they just come up with some sort of fingerprint access. Would be so much easier.</p>
<p>There are usb thumb drives that will store them with a master password. There is probably one with a finger swipe. My phone can just look at my face, or so I’m told.</p>
<p>My fear is someone could cut off my finger…or my face…or my eyes, like that Tom Cruise movie. Minority Report?</p>
<p>From Dad of 3 : In fact I’m scared even to use some of the financial sites where they will accept your ID and P/W from all your financial accounts so that they can present a composite analysis of your holdings.</p>
<p>I’m right with you there. I’ve been quite forcefully nudged to do this by one financial planner. When I refused for security reasons, I was sent an email with a huge explanation about how secure it was. For that and for other reasons, he will soon no longer have my business. The financial planner for my mom’s estate told me that the waiver of release that you grant (does anyone read those?) should scare the you know what out of everyone. I can pull all my financial data together in under 30 minutes, and it’s not something I feel the need to look at every day or even every week or month. That’s good enough for me, without the added security risk.</p>