Write down your passwords
Write down your passwords : Lifehacker
A Microsoft security expert said banning users from writing down passwords compromises security because it results in rarely-changed weak passwords used across multiple systems:
“Since not all systems allow good passwords, I am going to pick a really crappy one, use it everywhere and never change it,” Johansson said. “If I write them down and then protect the piece of paper—or whatever it is I wrote them down on—there is nothing wrong with that. That allows us to remember more passwords and better passwords.” Johansson said the security industry had been giving out the wrong advice about passwords for 20 years.
I have a file on a thumb (and/or jump) drive that I use to store my passwords on. It’s a spreadsheet (I won’t say what company makes the software), and it’s password protected. I used a hint at the password as part of the name of the file, since I’ve password protected stuff before and then not been able to open it again (luckily it was for stuff that I didn’t really need anyway). Any time I register for a website (at least one that I know I’ll be coming back to), I put in the jumpdrive and enter the username and password into the spreadsheet. It’s certainly easier than trying to remember then, and allows me to use several different passwords without necessarily having to remember them. Although, I do use a select few in rotation formation… as kind of a prefetch; I can guess at the password a couple times and usually get it right, but if I don’t then I have to go to RAM (the thumbdrive) to get the password from my “memory.”
On a related now (sort of), writing things down is good. And here I mean, by hand. I’m convinced (and I’m sure there’s a study out there somewhere) that writing things down by hand helps you remember them. More on this in a later post…
