Principality BS password criteria

nottsphil

Was having problems as I haven't logged in to my account for several months so rang customer services. They investigated and told me I actually had two logins, so I was trying to use my most recent password on the older login. They couldn't tell me if all the information on the old one had been transferred to the new, so I'd like to check myself. They didn't even know the minimum number of characters or whether special/capitals were mandatory, so I'm asking here please. 

castle96

mine is 10 long. 1 x capital, numbers and special charachters ($ in my case)

nottsphil

castle96 said:

mine is 10 long. 1 x capital, numbers and special charachters ($ in my case)

Thanks but that doesn't tell me if these are the minimum. I first registered with Principality 5 years ago and at that time I wouldn't have used a lengthy password nor a capital or special character unless I had to.

fwor

Why do you not just use the "forgotten your password" option with your older User ID?

nottsphil

fwor said:

Why do you not just use the "forgotten your password" option with your older User ID?

If I thought that would provide me with a password format hint then I would, but I think  PBS's systems would lose  knowledge of that password as it prepares to accept a replacement.
 I really need confirmation of what my password was because I'm at an age when any memory problems are of concern. If I've forgotten the password formed from the shorter and simpler format that I liked to use at that time (December 2018) then that really would be worrying.

fwor

nottsphil said:

fwor said:

Why do you not just use the "forgotten your password" option with your older User ID?

If I thought that would provide me with a password format hint then I would, but I think  PBS's systems would lose  knowledge of that password as it prepares to accept a replacement.

The "forgotten password" option never, ever tells you what you old password was - that would be too much of a security risk. You could, for example, simply change the password so it is the same as the one on your newer User ID.

If you are having trouble remembering you passwords (I can't remember any of my important ones, because I have deliberately set them to be long and random-looking) then just use a password manager. There are lots available (for example I use Keepass), many are free, open source and multi-platform, and they can be configured to be very secure indeed.

LHW99

5 years ago fewer companies (even banks) required special characters in the P/w. A few even prevented their use. A common length was "at least 8 characters", and "one lower case, one upper case and a number" was common.

Not sure how / if that will help though.

As above, I'd recommend a password manager for the future - I also use Keepass, with the Firefox browser plugin, and a (longish, very memorable) pass-phrase to access.

Nardy

LHW99 said:

I also use Keepass, with the Firefox browser plugin, and a (longish, very memorable) pass-phrase to access.

I use the Firefox password manager, how does it compare with Keepass?

LHW99

I haven't used Firefox to manage passwords, so can't comment.

I like Keepass as it keeps all details on my home PC (not the cloud / web) and is only operational when i want it to be (by opening the programme / database).

fwor

Nardy said:

LHW99 said:

I also use Keepass, with the Firefox browser plugin, and a (longish, very memorable) pass-phrase to access.

I use the Firefox password manager, how does it compare with Keepass?

I believe that you can make Keepass *much* more secure than the Firefox password manager. For example you can be sure that your password data is kept completely local to you, while a typical browser password manager will offer the *option* to store your data "in the cloud", where it may be more vulnerable.

Of course, that does come at a cost - you need to take extra effort to ensure that the password database is backed up adequately.

More importantly, with Keepass you can specify a unique "keyfile" which you can choose to store on a removable drive. If you choose this option, you can increase your security significantly, by storing the keyfile on an SD card (or similar). It gives the option of using the classic "something you know and something you have" security model.

Eyeful

I wonder why the OP did not make a note of his passwords or use a password manager such as Bitwarden or  KeepassXC ?