There Are Just Too Many Damn Passwords
Too many passwords, too little time.
Too easy to forget.
If there are too many passwords, doesn’t it follow that we have too many places and things that are demanding our private attention?
Current password requirements on my list of things to forget:
- Home email
- Mac mail
- Work email
- Work computer login (Windows)
- Home computer login (Mac)
- Property Management software login
- Real estate site
- Multiple listing site
- Instanet (online contract management)
- General Electric Lockbox settings
- Voicemail at work
- Voicemail on cellphone
- Bank login
- Business bank login
- Credit check login
- Band advertising (Sonicbids)
- Personal website
- Netflix
And then calculate that most of these sites want some type of “strong” password that entails a capital letter, a number, and at least six characters.
I tried to use fluffy123 for everything as Dr. K. prescribed but it didn’t work. It wasn’t a strong enough password.
I also tried “password” as the password but that was already taken.
20. Skype login.
21. Twitter! (Can’t forget that one. So useful to post those 1-line zingers!)
If I had a key for each of these passwords I would have a key ring that weighed 1/2 a pound! My key ring would more noise than a belly dancer strutting to the dance floor. My key ring would tear a hole in my pocket.
Why not have a black book locked away in the safe for all the passwords, like Ritter in “Clear and Present Danger”? Jack Ryan small talked Ritter about playing tennis while Ryan was cracking into Ritter’s terminal: “Jack, computer theft is a serious crime.”
And don’t forget the PIN numbers. They count as passwords also.
- Bank/debit card.
- Business bank debit card.
- 2nd business bank/debit card.
Where is the technology solution to this technological solution of protection? Where is the finger print reader attachment for all keyboards? Where is the webcam/retina scanner? Where is the voice activated, voice verification computing device?
Raffi Bandazian
kerneks
Adam Lazarus
Bob Smeerfak
A letter to the author:
I’ve developed a reliable “strong password” creation technique. It allows the use of the same basic content for every password.
Step 1: Choose a word or phrase. Keep it clean. Or not.
Step 2: Split the word between any two syllables, creating a placeholder space for a numeric value unique to each website.
Step 3: To construct a password for any given site, fill the placeholder with a numeric value corresponding to the letter of the alphabet with which the website’s name begins.
The resulting passwords are guaranteed to register as “strong”. In practice, simply reference the name of the website you are logging into to recall the appropriate password.
Full disclosure: The obvious value of the above intellectual property would make it seem as though I hand out these precious gems for the sake of altruism. It is, in fact, not a gift, but a payment. See below:
Some years ago the author insisted that this commenter, who is known to him, go to a bar after work with him and his friends. Refusing to relent, the author wore down the commenter who gave in and went for a drink. This fateful sequence of events placed the commenter in bed with a hot female — previously unknown to either author or commenter — for the next six months. That isn’t to say six months continuously; it is to say six months continually, or in other words, very frequently. These six months incurred a great debt of gratitude, the balance of which the commenter will continue to pay down until satisfied or, alternatively, until another invitation to go out for drinks is proffered.
The real test, then, would be to give me the website of your bank, your facebook login, your myspace login, your yourspace login, your business checking account, your personal checking account and let me test the “strength” or your password suggestions.
It is an ingenious idea–code the password within the code itself; almost as if you had an Enigma typewriter built into your browser. Carry on.
Good stuff, thanks!
Thank you San Jose Chiropractor. I’ve been meaning to tell you that my lower lumbar support has been acting up. They say its because my arse it too wide–could that be the cause?