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Good password habits?

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Cardinary Sins of Passwords

  • Using short passwords with few numbers or special characters.
  • Using the same password for many things (or everything).
  • Rarely (or never) changing passwords.
  • Using a name or common phrase in a password.

If you’re guilty of one or more of these bad password habits, raise your hand!

*Raises hand*

Despite being (I think) very tech savvy, I have some very bad password habits, and I would not be at all surprised if many of my similarly computer-smart friends do too. Mostly, I use the same password for many things, and I rarely change my passwords.  The password I use most often, for almost all of my accounts on various websites, I first used with my first email account so long ago in the mid 90s. It is a relatively short and simple password, and someone could definitely wreak some havoc if they got their hands on it, though they wouldn’t have access to anything important. Of my other passwords, the newest one is about 3 years old and I came up with the oldest one almost 7 years ago. That’s plenty of time for someone to get their hands on the keys to my personal information, bank accounts, etc.

One of my new years resolutions this year was to improve on my password habits, and I definitely haven’t gotten anywhere with that. (Another one was to blog more, heh, fail there too.) So I guess the question is, why is it so hard to keep passwords up to date and secure?

For me, the number one barrier to changing passwords regularly is the hassle of having to memorize a new password, especially a complex one with numbers and special characters. Similarly, I reuse the 3 or 4 passwords I use most often to minimize the risk of forgetting a password.  With so many different services which require passwords, and more every week as I sign up for a new web site, it is sometimes difficult to remember whether I have an account to a certain site, much less remember a unique password for each one. Furthermore, I’ve never had any problems with security, so I don’t have any real motivation to change them.

Possible solutions

Using a password manager: I got a free license for 1password during MacHeist’s Giving Tree this year, which I’m going to start using. This allows me to use more passwords of greater complexity, and not have to worry about forgetting them. Of course, this is only as secure as the master password I use for 1password, and I have to figure something out for when I am on a public computer. If I don’t actually remember my passwords, I won’t be able to get to my accounts away from my computer.
Using phrase passwords: Instead of the traditional 8-12 character random passwords, use a 20-30 character phrase that is easy to memorize but difficult to guess. To help mitigate the risk of getting locked out of my accounts if I lose access to my password manager somehow, I think I will start using phrases from songs or quotes or something as passwords, instead. Unfortunately, the longer a phrase is, the greater a chance for a typo while typing it in.
Using a password generation system: Another option which might be safer than phrase passwords is using a system to generate secure passwords that are unique for every site. One such system is this one suggested by Lifehacker.

I’m starting to migrate towards these practices right now. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep it up and maintain my good luck with regard to password security for a while longer.


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