Passwords

isofa

I have so many logins to look after, for clients sites, my own on-line accounts, probably 50+, I use a different password, or a combination of passwords for each account (I have an analytical mind!), and some I rotate regularly. I put reminders in a database, but only apt to me, they would be meaningless to anyone else reading it.

If you want to store passwords securely on your computer, try the excellent, OpenSource and free KeePass which is also available as part of the Portable Apps suite, which you can carry on a USB memory stick. This is a secure way to store passwords or reminders. Never use text files, Word etc, these are very insecure (even a password protected word document can be broken in seconds), and if you keep them all in one place you are risking more security breaches if the one place/document is found and broken into.

Nick_C

How about using your mobile phone to store passwords? You can store 7 character passwords disguised as Post Codes, or PINS as part of phone numbers, stored against ficticious contacts.

Agree with above - don't use Word documents as you can easily buy software to crack the passwords.

There is a useful password strength checker at

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx

And a good article about creating passwords at

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/create.mspx

~Chameleon~

Newly_retired wrote: »

All these tricks are all very well but if you've got 15 accounts, and some need 6, some 8, some 9 characters etc, it gets impossible to remember which of your variations goes with which account.
I can remember my three most used ones, but others ....???

I have the same problem, especially with some recent accounts I've opened that all seem to want different security methods i.e. memorable numbers, names, places and passwords that require capitalisation, numbers and letters of specific lengths etc so it's getting harder to remember which adaptations I've made to favourite passwords with each account :doh:

I've actually resorted to writing some of them down, which is a first for me, but only the "extras" that I've had to include to get the password adapted and still keep the main parts in my head.

Now PIN numbers, well, I must have about 30 of those so no chance of ever trying to remember them!!! :eek:

I have two I use regularly and those are in my head but the others are stored in my phone as ficitious phone numbers so anyone looking through my phone would never discover them and even if they suspected it was possibly a PIN code, they wouldn't have a clue which of the numbers actually related to my PIN

trashcan_2

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

I have the same problem, especially with some recent accounts I've opened that all seem to want different security methods i.e. memorable numbers, names, places and passwords that require capitalisation, numbers and letters of specific lengths etc so it's getting harder to remember which adaptations I've made to favourite passwords with each account :doh:

Yes one security detail wrong and you can't log on! let alone remembering all the passwords.

~Chameleon~

trashcan wrote: »

Yes one security detail wrong and you can't log on! let alone remembering all the passwords.

Exactly! I've actually done that twice today already!

I got the password wrong for the Visa Verisign security for one of my debit cards (realised upon re-setting it that it needed a capitalised letter :rolleyes: ) and also forgot my user ID for Barclaycard so had to call them and ask for it

esbo

For my bank cards I have the pin numbers written down but encoded.
What I do is take a number off my pin number and write down the result.
Then I just add that number back on to get the result.
Ex.

Pin = 4795 my 'code number' =3123 so I write dowm 1672
So to get my pin number back I just add 3123 to the 1672 I have written down.

Thus I have a list of cards with a number written beside it but none of the numbers
will work!! (unless you know how to decode it).

Ha ha I just noticed Xiox already posted thie method!!

If I want a hard password I use the first letters of an easy phrase to remember,
this could be a line from a song for example.

eg
bbbshyaw= ba ba black sheep have you any wool

So you could generate a series of passwords from a song
eg
ysystbf=Yes sir, yes sir,Three bags full.

So if you pick a song you know well that should generate a whole
series of passwords for you. Then all you have to do is remember which
line in the song to use.
Might be advisable not to use really popular songs though but even so
there are thousands of them anyway.

Lakeuk

I use the portable version of Keepass which is excellent, but to different degree, so things like forums logins go in no problem, but things like finance logins I take extra steps like only storing part of the details, putting deliberate errors that I know to ignore, mixing case, numbers - but sometimes I forget my own methods or usually mixup whats what.

What I like about keepass is that you can copy/paste details into websites which avoids anyone over the shoulder watching what you're typing

http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/keepass_portable

surreysaver

James wrote: »

How Card Issuers view you using the same PIN for several cards. (click here). Could the same happen with Passwords?

Is using the same PIN for more than one card not the same as a bank enabling access to more than one account from the same card? A lot of banks enable you to access more than one account with the same card, PIN, and password. Surely if a bank is going to accuse a customer of using the same PIN or password for more than one account, then it follows that more than one account should not be accessable from the same card?

trashcan_2

Thank you to you all for replying to my question. Its been very interesting reading all your methods of remembering passwords. I thought I was the only one having difficulty.
I like 5 or 6 of these methods and i will choose one of them, not sure which yet.

many thanks.