Passwords, mashwords..........

[carpetmojo]

News of the Sony confession that their playstation customer info files have been hacked, with a possible 77 million world wide (3m in UK, a drop in the ocean!) details at risk - including credit card and personal details - led to a security guru advising everyone should have a unique, different password for every application we use.

Don't know how many passwords he's using, but, I'm no geek, and even i have a ludicrous number of the things

Does anyone out there use a totally different password for each use ?

[alecE]

I had to give up remembering passwords eons ago. Now I rely on a little app called Keypass which stores my many passwords securely and requires me to just remember the one master password to open the application. This should be OK until mental decay sets in.

[RainingLemur]

Yeah, I was pissed when I was notified that my info was compromised. Luckily, I didn't have anything too pertinent for information on my account (filled in dummy info), and never used my actual bank card(s) for purchases.

Now they (Sony) are facing another class action lawsuit.

[carpetmojo]

I just thought I'd post on the UK Sony Forum about the above - and had 3 posts refused !
First was because I wasn't "authorized to view what I'd asked for".
Second because an"error had occurred".
Third time I got crafty and went to a "General Discussions" thread I'd just contributed to, and told the Forumites what had happened, and that I had been "censored".
I hit " post" and saw it come up, saw I'd missed a word, hit "edit", corrected it quickly, hit update............................

And was told the site was closed for maintenance !

Went back to very start, wet to the thread (about site speed etc,,) and got through OK - and saw my uncorrected message had sneaked in.

But my originals were nowhere to be seen - which both covered the hacking business details.

Strange or what ???

I'll see ifI can get it on tomorrow........ Oooo I love conspiracy tales, don't you ???

[carpetmojo]

I did mention I'd seen it on the national BBC news, but not good enough, apparently !!

[Love.Forever.]

Yeah I heard about that. I never use my credit card information online, if I need to buy something online I will just buy a prepaid visa/mastercard,etc. at the store and then use it... if anyone hacked into the account then they think they can get my "credit card" info, when in reality they can't get anything

[MovieBird]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

News of the Sony confession that their playstation customer info files have been hacked, with a possible 77 million world wide (3m in UK, a drop in the ocean!) details at risk - including credit card and personal details - led to a security guru advising everyone should have a unique, different password for every application we use.

Don't know how many passwords he's using, but, I'm no geek, and even i have a ludicrous number of the things

Does anyone out there use a totally different password for each use ?

Yes, I do. I keep a different password for each website that deals with money, or personally identifiable information. I use the same password, or variation thereof, only for various forums.

I generally use a random password generator, and generate the longest possible password for the site. I always include numbers, and punction if possible. I also ensure that these are inside the password, i.e., not the first or last character only. Oh, and I make sure that I don't use O or 0, or 1 or l because they're easy to mix up.

Lastly, I keep track of all these in a really, really secure txt document on my computer called Passwords.txt.

I figure if someone has physical access to my Linux box, well, I've got bigger problems. Besides, how is my technologically challenged wife supposed to find my financial access information in case of incapacitation/death if I encrypt it?

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by MovieBird

Lastly, I keep track of all these in a really, really secure txt document on my computer called Passwords.txt.

I figure if someone has physical access to my Linux box, well, I've got bigger problems. Besides, how is my technologically challenged wife supposed to find my financial access information in case of incapacitation/death if I encrypt it?

Passwords.txt sounds a good idea.......................

[Bikeridr]

Luckily, I don't have Facebook, MSN, Playstation, Xbox or any other tv-game-device. I don't even have games on my computers exept the windows-soltaire-thingy that came preinstalled with the os.

For my other passwords (forums netbank etc.) I have written it down in a textfile which I've converted to an encrypted QuickMark barcode (and deleted the original textfile with military strength eraser software). Barcode printed out and stored "in a safe place". If I forget any password, I can easily flip my cellphone with QM-software to scan the barcode, insert the decryption passphrase and have the passwords revealed, if needed.
Have a look at the QuickMark site for encrypted barcode.

[wannabee]

I use a different password for each financial institution but don't worry too much for places like this. Can't imagine what a hacker is going to do with my ID on a forum. Can't make me look much sillier.
I have the account numbers and passwords securely recorded on hard copy in case something happens to me.

[rogue_librarian]

Originally Posted by MovieBird

Yes, I do. I keep a different password for each website that deals with money, or personally identifiable information. I use the same password, or variation thereof, only for various forums.

Same here. I make liberal use of stored passwords and permalogin cookies, too. (Physical access to my computer is easier to secure).

I am using a dedicated device for storing my passwords. It handles everything, from secure password generation (based on certain criteria, like at least one digit and special characters) to expiration management (offering to create a new one for me).

[wannabee]

Originally Posted by rogue_librarian

expiration management (offering to create a new one for me).

That's a good idea. Mine have been the same for too long. Time to rethink things in light of all this cyber crime.

[mjhudston]

I use a variation of the same password. I change I's for 1's and O's for 0's. Then I put a two digit number at the end that relates to the site I am using. This means I have physically different passwords for most sites, but similar enough that they are easy to remember, I tend to use the same password for related sites, ie for all my blogs, they are the samne, but these are different from Forum Passwords. My bank password is unique!!!

[GeoffC]

I use Norton Internet Security password manager .


My PC misbehaved last week and I had to do a complete reinstall of Windows.......

bye-bye all my passwords

password.txt seems an excellent idea ..... secured with a password, no doubt

[astra]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

Does anyone out there use a totally different password for each use ?

Except forums, yes. I do.