How do other people remember their passwords?

[Guest]

Used to require less changing of passwords to use the internet. Trying to set up a current wizards of the coast account for 5e play, but they want:

• Minimum of 7 characters
• Maximum of 29 characters
• Uppercase letter (1 or more)
• Lowercase letter (1 or more)
• Number (0–9)
• Special character (e.g., !, $, *, etc.)

I can do that, but I'm not really sure how to retain such a password. I suppose I could write it down, but writing down your password is usually the reason the password is stolen. I have enough jumbled in my head as is. How do others select passwords? Is there a site, perhaps, that has all the easy to recall passwords of this format on it? Other Suggestions?

I'm old and I don't like change. Help me, please.

[WestRider]

When I want a really secure one, I go to some random number generating site, and just have it pick numbers between 1 and 72 for a while. Those correspond to a-z and 0-9, plus the same lot with the shift key held down. Then, yeah, I write it down on a piece of paper. That bit of paper stays tucked away in a book that neither casual visitors nor burglars would be likely to open. My handwriting adds a further degree of security 😉

[Duckman]

Pass *phrase* or mnemonic. Pick something memorable like "2nd edition is still better than anything WotC ever thought up and Dave Arneson is a god!" Write it down if you need to.

 

2eisbtaWotCetuaDAiag!

[andy]

I use 1Password -- it supports all the OS's I use (OSX, Windows, iOS). It generates secure passwords, stores them, and integrates with browsers and many mobile apps. It syncs across devices using Dropbox. You have to pay for it, but it's worth it.

[savion47]

I use password a password manager as well. I honestly do not know most of my passwords anymore. Yes, they have their security vulnerabilities, but when sites get hacked, that password only works on that one site. I don't have to worry about them using the password on other common sites. This has simplified my life when I get those "we've been hacked" emails.

[pretre]

Password manager is definitely what you want.

[evil_bryan]

I have a password process that I have employed over the years that has worked for me.

I take the name of a item and format in a specific way to meet the criteria of the PW.

For example, let say the item in question is the bottle of Agrax Earthshade wash sitting at my desk right now. I could build the password aGreArml24 (three letters from each words, capitalizing the second letter, then adding the size of the bottle at the end). I would never have to write that down. I would either need to remember the item and sequence, or take a picture of the item as a reminder and be good. When I change the password, grab another bottle of wash and I'm good to go. 🙂

[Brick Bungalow]

I like to use 'Incorrect' that way the bot just tells me the password no matter what I type in. 

[Psilence]

Lol

1 hour ago, Brick Bungalow said:

I like to use 'Incorrect' that way the bot just tells me the password no matter what I type in. 

Pax is a master criminal in disguise, getting all of us to list out our security measures.

Well played. 😉

 

Im old, I write mine in a book.

[Romans832]

https://pwsafe.org/

 

Work uses it so I started using it.

Password Safe will generate for you, or you can tell it what you made your password.

[Kelharis]

Wife and I had an issue with an account being hacked so we went with a new system for all of our passwords.  Basically we went with a system where theres a word that can change but is similar, followed by a number that remains the same, then another word that can change but is similar followed by another number and a special character.  The password format remains the same, but the words change per site, for instance:

site 1: " Pizza486Blue27* "

site 2: " Cheese486Green27* "

While it could certainly be more secure with complete randomness, unless we get hit with a keylogger or similar, it would be hard to pick out our patter randomly.

We also decided to simplify those annoying security questions that I can't even legitimately answer most of the time because I'm old and can't remember the middle name of my third friend in grade school.

same idea as passwords with a twist: something like word, numbers, word *word for the specific question* numbers

So say the question is "Who is your favorite superhero?" the answer might be:

China642mudhero174

[WestRider]

27 minutes ago, Kelharis said:

We also decided to simplify those annoying security questions that I can't even legitimately answer most of the time because I'm old and can't remember the middle name of my third friend in grade school.

same idea as passwords with a twist: something like word, numbers, word *word for the specific question* numbers

So say the question is "Who is your favorite superhero?" the answer might be:

China642mudhero174

It's a good idea to fake those anyhow. A surprising amount of the information they ask for is out there on the internet, especially for people who have grown up with the internet and have things like their first pet or first car on their facebook or a blog post or something.

[savion47]

On 5/18/2018 at 1:29 PM, WestRider said:

It's a good idea to fake those anyhow. A surprising amount of the information they ask for is out there on the internet, especially for people who have grown up with the internet and have things like their first pet or first car on their facebook or a blog post or something.

Ya, my answer to those is generally some string of expletives followed by how I am not going to answer these dumb questions. It made for a fun time trying to recover access to an important account over the phone.

[Raindog]

We have physical copies of all passwords in the house. 

[Blustorm]

1 hour ago, Raindog said:

We have physical copies of all passwords in the house. 

I'm finding that I need to do that more often as a I get older. 

[Weav]

I use my SSN

[Raindog]

17 minutes ago, Weav said:

I use my SSN

I use Weav's SSN. 

[Romans832]

Wow, Weav's SSN gets around...

[Guest]

If you were to use your SSN, would they be allowed to treat it as a normal password, or would they have to keep it sensitive, like they normally do for SSNs on forms and such?

[WestRider]

I really doubt that most sites have any real way to tell the difference between a SSN and any other string of 9 numbers. It would likely be treated exactly the same as any other password.

[Romans832]

On 5/21/2018 at 9:14 PM, WestRider said:

I really doubt that most sites have any real way to tell the difference between a SSN and any other string of 9 numbers. It would likely be treated exactly the same as any other password.

Except if you know your SSN details, it's very obvious when they're fake.

@PumpkinHead & I, while at Pullman, had the opportunity to sign up for a credit card for a free Pita (@ Pita Pit). I had no problems coming up with 9 digits, but the people doing the sign up challenged me, the numbers I gave them followed NO pattern that they're supposed to follow... Sadly Pumpkin struggled to keep his 9 numbers straight...
(Funnily, they couldn't stop me because I didn't trip up when they challenged my false info)

[WestRider]

41 minutes ago, Romans832 said:

Except if you know your SSN details, it's very obvious when they're fake.

@PumpkinHead & I, while at Pullman, had the opportunity to sign up for a credit card for a free Pita (@ Pita Pit). I had no problems coming up with 9 digits, but the people doing the sign up challenged me, the numbers I gave them followed NO pattern that they're supposed to follow... Sadly Pumpkin struggled to keep his 9 numbers straight...
(Funnily, they couldn't stop me because I didn't trip up when they challenged my false info)

Yeah, but how many places are likely to have an automated system to check each password for a string that might be a SSN? That was the real point I was going for.

[Romans832]

Great point... this was humans that knew their $h!t and could call me out... but my bluff was stronger 😉

So can a password bot be programmed for it? yes... do they? hell if I know...