Practice Your Passwords

Scott Hanselman (who talks a lot of sense) has been telling people on the internets to make sure they have secure passwords, and different passwords for all their various accounts. This is very sensible, and made me think about my passwords. I find that the problem is that when hit with an “enter new password” dialog my brain turns to mush and I can’t think of anything sensible to use. Actually, my brain turns to mush at other times too, such as when number one wife ask me questions like “What do you think?”, but I digress.

Anyhoo, having pondered the matter I reckon the way to solve this one is that whenever you are doing something mildly unexciting (for example mowing the lawn or vacuuming the lounge) you should use the time think about what might make a good password and practice remembering it. That way, when the prompt comes along you will have something to type in.

Comments

[John Harrison]

If you're really concerned about security, look into some form of dual factor authentication. LastPass and a Yubi key ensures all your passwords are secure, and a physical device is required to gain access to your profiles.

[Arjun Taheem]

Love lastpass, its a very useful tool, its available for windows phone 7 as well as a number of other platforms and theres an extension for most major browsers. You do have to pay a small fee to use it on a mobile device but its worth it imo. Also WOT (web of trust) is a useful plugin which can warn you if a site a malicious before clicking on it which is always useful, specially for these new dodgy facebook "like" sites.