Passwords are out of control. You need one for just about everything, and there is virtually no way to keep track of them anymore:- some sites require users to change them every 90 days
- most have stipulations on character length and what must be contained (special characters, numbers, capital letters, etc)
- Password recovery is often a pain itself, requiring users to decipher a line of scribbly text and/or answer a stupid secret question (that one could easily forget the answer to also)
- The really evil sites prohibit a user from ever using the same password phrase
This post is dedicated to tips and tricks to avoid a total meltdown. Here are my current and future password remembrance strategies:
Master Excel Spreadsheet Method
- I have every password archived in an Excel document (which is password protected, of course)! For every account, I list the site, the username, password, email attached to that account, date the account was created, any stupid rules, and the answers to my secret questions. The multitude of accounts are organized by type: Social Media goes into sheet 1 for example, work-related accounts in sheet 2, and financial institutions are in sheet 3, etc.
- My passwords are the same or very similar for similar types of accounts. Only accounts that would wreak havoc on my entire life if their security was compromised are given unique, super, “un-hackable” passwords and are changed 4 times a year. Deciding which accounts are more important than others isn’t usually very hard to do — the key here is to not use the same system for everything. You don’t want a secondary personal email account on Hotmail to be related to your banking password.
- This document is backed up in multiple locations (though I won’t say where!)
- My password life has been a lot more manageable and stress-free since I implemented this system about a year ago. If the idea of that much organization brings tears to your eyes, I have recently came up with another method:
Memory-Association Technique
- Remember your passwords by associating the first letter of a website with an item in an alphabetical series. I’m thinking of doing mine with animals. For example, Amazon.com and all other websites that start with the letter “A” could have a password revolving around “Aardvark.” Bestbuy.com and other “B” sites could be “Badger” and so on.
- This can be an easy way to remember the password to any site, so long as you commit to memory 26 standard items in a series. Animals are my best suggestion.
- If you’re incessant about changing your password often, then try rotating through a different animal kingdom. Birds could be for one year, mammals another, etc. Note: This strategy offers a high-level of security, but memorizing a lot of items in a series can be cumbersome. And you have to change all of your passwords at once or you’ll be on two different systems at the same time! Plus it will only work if you can remember your entire series of alphabetical phrases.
I’m curious to know what your password strategies are. How do you avoid the meltdown? Furthermore, do you foresee a gradual shift in default account security methods, such as replacing passwords with fingerprint readers? That technology has already been integrated into IBM machines and perhaps other computers for years.
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