MoneySaving Poll: How many passwords do you have & are they the same? 3 November 2015 at 12:08PM in MoneySaving polls 9 replies 2.5K views

Former_MSE_Sam_M

Poll started 3 November 2015

How many passwords do you have & are they the same?

The TalkTalk cyber attack (see our TalkTalk help) has heightened concern over password security. Best practice is never use the same password twice, but that makes things difficult.

So we want to find out how many password-controlled accounts you have – from banks to social media, music streaming services and more. And how often do you use the same password?

What is closest to your situation?

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PasturesNew

Over 900, most different. Stored on an encrypted USB stick that's also password protected .... I just remember about 20 that I use regularly and look up the rest. On the stick I also keep notes on when I last accessed each site and why and which email address each is registered to - and any fake names I've used to sign up for random cr4p and wrong birth dates in case they hit me with some "memorable name" cr4p authentication out of the blue.

SadGamerGeek

Very secure! Is this via a password manager or a manual process?

If manual, how do you manage logging into sites via mobile devices that can't read USB sticks?

I have around 300 sites, all different & managed via LastPass. I have recently started using it to record my made up "name of first school/pet etc." answers too.

When Adobe got hacked it felt great to just change one password without having to panic about other places I might have used it.

Gordon_the_Moron

I use the same password for most web forums/social media and the like with nothing financial on. If my accounts get hacked hey ho so be it, I don't put ANY confidential info on them or info like which school I went to, listing family members, DOB, you're just publishing answers to your security questions!

Anything financial has strictly different passwords for each one and different to the ones for other sites, and I have a load, and I never write them down anywhere, I do also have the nickname Rain Man!

jonnywright

I use a password manager which has 2FA, I use a Yubico for this. It's a great bit of kit.

Ectophile

I use a notebook and a pencil. In the notebook, I write a code that allows me to deduce the password if I have forgotten it.

theshed

Well embarrassingly I forgot my MSE password, havn't used it in a while !
Banking and similar accounts have very different passwords but most others have passwords that are easy for me to remember by just changing a simple part of each one.
As has been suggested elsewhere, if someone wants to hack my Gas account and pay the bill, fine by me. I do not have any personal info' on these type of accounts so not sure why I need a 12 letter password consisting of letters, numbers, symbols and the name of my first teachers pet dogs mother ?

theshed

Something I just remembered. Despite repeated warnings My Missus never logs herself out.
Email, Facebook, Paypal ! Very infuriating, but it does make shopping on Ebay rather cheap for me !

Doc_N

Any recommendations for effective password managers?

micky2phones

Lots and No