Please do not change your password

Boston Globe ^ | April 11, 2010 | Mark Pothier

[RebelTex]

Shameless product endorsement: (LOL)

Try this program: Password Agent

I use it and love it. The lite version is free (25 passwords) and the full version is inexpensive ($25.95). I use the full version and have over 200 entries in 40 different groups. I don't have to remember passwords for anything except logging onto my computer and opening the PW program itself. Changing a password is easy and I can make the passwords non-sense in varying lengths using whatever characters I want or need. I can even have the program generate passwords for me to my specs. Life is so much easier with this little tool. For those who can remember the old DOS 3.1 days, I love this program as much as I did SideKick, Deskview and Framework.

Here's their description from their website:

Password Agent is an easy-to-navigate password management program that allows you to store all your passwords, secret notes and data snippets in a single, secure database. Do you have too many passwords to remember? Are pieces of paper that you used to write down your important account information lost? Do you want to find this information quickly? Password Agent keeps track of all your passwords - no problems, no worries. And, it keeps unauthorized users from accessing your private information.

Password Agent

Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in this company nor do I receive any remuneration for any sales or links. When I'm very satisfied with a product, I like to recommend it. Good products that work well should be supported.

[Royal Wulff]

Then it should be safe to keep passwords in email files

You can't be serious.

[LibWhacker]

Password Corral. Shareware. Resident on your machine, not some central server somewhere.

I've got maybe a hundred passwords. Logging into a site that requires one is just a couple of quick cut and paste operations. All my passwords that matter are long, long random alphanumeric strings. The only one I have to memorize is the one that opens Password Corral.

It's not perfect, but good enough.

[roadcat]

Then it should be safe to keep passwords in email files
You can't be serious.

Hope he isn't. I was a senior router administrator in a large shop. A couple of the managers of some user groups wanted to nail someone for some infraction of email usage. I pointed out it was hard to prove who was sending it out. Then I showed them how easy it was to spoof someone's email identity, to alter the source address, and how one can sniff traffic and see all that passes in clear text, including people sending passwords. Sure changed the managers peace of mind.

[South40]

I have a great way of creating passwords that makes them easy to remember.

Use a base word, i.e., Monkey.

If I were to log on to Free Republic my password might be monkey_freerepublic

For Bank of America it would be monkey_bofa

For CVS pharmacy it would be monkey_cvs

This method makes it really easy to remember (no need to write it down).

[Yaelle]

Or you can use something slightly more complicated, like a sentence or phrase, and figure out a code way to write it using some digits and characters, and make it change with a certain amount of time. That way, even though it changes, you know what the previous ones were for passwords entered months ago. Sounds hard but if the sentence has meaning to you, it’s not so hard. I have a bad memory for stuff but this system works for me. The sentence was generated over 20 years ago and it still can function forever with the right changes over time. Only you decide what time frames to change it in.

[Rocky]

Great idea! Also a great idea to post your passwords on FreeRepublic!

Wouldn’t it be great if we all used the same passwords? Then we could help each other remember our passwords in case we forget them.

[South40]

Also a great idea to post your passwords on FreeRepublic!

Those weren't my passwords, just the format that I use.

[SamAdams76]

Base your passwords on a simple yet hard to decipher system. For instance, here is one password: "AX154Y7_2"

That might look like a hard-to-remember password but to me it makes perfect sense.

[South40]

ok, I give.

I've done similar things but they're not as easy to remember and I needed a different one for each site.

Here's one I've used...

#@r3dbu||

[vanilla swirl]

“Some study will come out that proves that frequent password changes increases exposure and turnover such that there are more points for leakage to the unscrupulous. And, a decent, steady, and unchanged password for the ages far superior. “

That’s been well established but common sense must be overridden. It geeks have to prove that they are “doing something” to increase security all the time.

[Big Giant Head]

I use sentences that young children say, meaningless gibberish, but cute and memorable only to me. VERY difficult to guess.

[Freedom4US]

Mnemonic memory aids.

Want to remember the resistor color band codes? “Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls, But Violet Gives Willingly.” (black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, gray, white) That sort of thing can be used to remember certain letters or number combinations, known only to you, a favorite restaurant or location, convert the letters to corresponding numbers. Whatever system works for you.

Me, I just use 1234. Ha! No, my problem is I will set up a good password, write it down on a scrap of paper somewhere and then memorize it. All is well for 6 months, and then I get the “tip of the tongue” deal going, where I forget the password. Or just part of it. Wierd.

[rightly_dividing]

Since no one would ever think of using the actual word ‘password’,

I have to attend software classes periodically for my job, and almost always the password used in classes will be "password"

[BenKenobi]

I have about 5. I rotate through them periodically. Used them for years.

[shorty_harris]

Wow. I like this.

I use KeePassX to generate and store all my passwords. I keep the database in a Dropbox folder, so it's accessible from any of my computers anywhere.

[RGSpincich]

Since the economic downturn, I pray for somebody to steal my passwords and get me out of this mess.

[listenhillary]

I also keep a copy of the password protected excel file on a password protected thumb drive.

[ShadowAce]

[Right Wing Assault]

maybe a half dozen or more

I must have twenty different ones. Everytime I blink, the webiste is asking me to modify my password to fit their new standard and, yes, it shouldn't look like the old one. One has gone through four iterations at least, I believe. I only remember a few of them. The rest are stored encoded in a top secret location on a top secret web site accessible to me from anywhere in the world and constantly needs updating.

And now my banks have started to change my credit card numbers, so I am getting nasty emails from automatic pay accounts that my credit card info is invalid and that I had better fix things right away.

And then my stupid U-verse home internet goes down last night and is still down. Well, at least I won't have to fuss about the occasional super-slow 150 baud wireless mode it randomly goes into every fifteen minutes.