Passwords

d8m

After a few emails yesterday from Paypal about me trying to reset my password(which I did not), I have been motivated to finally after a good 10 years sort out my online account passwords into something a bit more secure.

Up until today I've had many accounts using the same passwords, these passwords were weak so its a miracle I never had issues!

Now to retrain my muscle memory!

HAL9000

Because lots of sites insist on a mixture of upper and lower case, numbers, and punctuation symbols, it is now reckoned that more people than ever write passwords down as they're so difficult to remember.

I use the same password for everything but prefix it with the first three letters of the company name. For instance my Amazon password begins Ama. That way I don't need to write anything down, and it's easy to remember.

EricTheWeary

I can't see much of a problem with writing them down at home unless you are worried a burglar is going to hang about using your laptop and ordering unwanted albums off iTunes.

d8m

HAL9000 said:

Because lots of sites insist on a mixture of upper and lower case, numbers, and punctuation symbols, it is now reckoned that more people than ever write passwords down as they're so difficult to remember.

I use the same password for everything but prefix it with the first three letters of the company name. For instance my Amazon password begins Ama. That way I don't need to write anything down, and it's easy to remember.

I have opted for something similar to this combined with a tranposition on the root password.

dafuzz

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/password_strength.png

... but of course as already said most websites won't let you use just letters: you have to use a combination of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and non-alphanumeric characters

Emp_Fab

I use the first letters from song lyrics and change i's and o's to zeroes and ones - e.g. using the first line from Motorhead's 'The ace of spades', you'd get 1yltg1ty1ym  (If you like to gamble, I tell you I'm your man).  You can also alternate upper and lower case if you want to mix it up a bit more.  Pretty secure as far as passwords go and despite looking cryptic, it's a piece of piss to remember.  All you have to do is remember which account has which song associated with it !

breakstuff

I use songs too sometimes.Just abbreviate a particular song and then add the album track listing number.

stickyfiddle

My work passwords have to use at least three of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and punctuation and must be changed every 3 months at least. I'm currently going through DC comics characters, followed by 2 digits and 3 punctuations that remain the same with each iteration. When those run out I'll start on Marvel. Should last me several years.

Axe_meister

Fine if your password has to stay the same. In my job deal with about 10 different clients. Each client has a different password policy, each with different timeout policies.
So it is guaranteed that when I go back to a client. after a month or two I will have forgotten my password and have to call the help desk. Due to some of our clients having very strickt security policies I can't even use a secure password store (which in itself is very insecure) not even allowed mobile phones or laptops on site.

HAL9000

My password has to be at least eight characters - I chose Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs!

I'm here all week folks!

MtB

The thought had crossed my mind, particularly for web sites that I don't use too often, to just hit "forgotten password" each time and let them make a new one up and email it to me!

stickyfiddle

MtB said:

The thought had crossed my mind, particularly for web sites that I don't use too often, to just hit "forgotten password" each time and let them make a new one up and email it to me!

I pretty much do that with anything but the regulars. Not intentionally, I just can't ever remember which of my umpteen passwords I used!

JRL

I have more trouble with rarely used sites that make you use a username instead of your email address (excluding forums obviously!).

Stuff like Avios, my normal usernames are always already taken, so end up with some random number on the end that i don't remember.

dafuzz

MtB said:

The thought had crossed my mind, particularly for web sites that I don't use too often, to just hit "forgotten password" each time and let them make a new one up and email it to me!

At work we often have to do e-learning / CBT / whatever on a third party website that has stoopid restrictions on the password you need to use. I don't even use a password anymore, I enter my email and hit 'forgotten password' and they email me a link to use to login.

It occurs to me that I'd happily do that for most places these days - a one-time login linky via email.

Drew_TNBD

I always just use "password1234"

capo4th

Qwerty5678 is useful

speshul91

W4nker69 works for me

Hootsmon

mine is the Welsh village....Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch.with some numbers at the end tae make it difficult

.

Hootsmon

 ^ works also for excess redtube wankage.........by the time I've entered the password the notion has worn off

beed84

I just let my mac generate and save mine for me.  Saves a lot of energy of trying to remember, forgetting, the website telling you you've put the wrong password in, then having to go through the hassle of "forgotten my password" ordeal, then having to go through further hassle of thinking up a new password that no one will get, settling on one, typing it in the box only to be confronted by the website explaining to you that the passwords don't match, typing them again until they do, pressing enter, and a day later wondering why you didn't write the password down...

Cacofonix

I remember a thing going round work asking for various information about people and asking for their "pornstar names", being their first pet's name and their mother's maiden names.

Nobody seemed to be too concerned (or notice) that those were the two key pieces of information to get into their bank accounts at the time.  As it was an email chain, the information also contained their email addresses.