Write down your passwords

re: Write down your passwords

Anthony Bouch — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:15:18 GMT

Hi Jesper - interesting post. Bruce Schneier also describes writing down password as another 'factor' for authentication - "something you have".

On a separate, but related topic - can you recommend a good password generator? Ideally with a pronounceable password option as well.

re: Write down your passwords

Jeff Centimano — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:42:07 GMT

Jesper - I agree that keeping a printed copy of your passwords is a good idea. One reason is the dreaded 'hit by a truck' scenario. Do you really want to force your next of kin to learn/use your password manager in order to access important e-mails, bank records, etc.? Nope - life will be stressful enough.

I print my password list a few times per year and keep it in the fire-proof safe w/ my will and other important papers. Of course this safe is locked up and kept in a secure place within the house. The list includes URLs in addition to credentials. Again - the goal is to make accessing my info as easy as possible.

Finally - my choice for password mgmt. tools is Acerose. Conforms to the KISS principle and works great on XP and Vista. Check it out at www.dexadine.com/acerose.html

Cheers --Jeff

re: Write down your passwords

Anonymous Coward — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:37:50 GMT

I find the Microsoft Fingerprint Reader works great for me and all my website logins. Granted it only works on my machine and not out and about but that suits me down to the ground. Nothing like my username and long password like F!ngErPr|n7-Re@der to be written & logged-in less than a second even works with TrueCrypt! And I can create multiple profiles using my other hand or finger. And all my login details can be backed up and placed in my TrueCrypt vault. As you can tell I think it's cool!

re: Write down your passwords

Chris — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:32:24 GMT

I never really understood the logic of trying to remember more that one password. Even writing down the password seems silly. Just the act of trying to come up with enough unique complex passwords is crazy.

Of course I went through these steps until I ran across a mechanism to generate a unique password for each site I visit, without having to remember or write down the unique password.

Have a look at www.dscoduc.com/pwmaker.aspx for an example of what I am talking about...

re: Write down your passwords

HiltonT — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:28:57 GMT

I've been using Roboform for quite some time now and find it extremely useful. To the point that I purchased the "PDA" version of it so that I can lug my passwords around on my PDA as well - this works better than a secured SharePoint (or other similar) site when you're onsite and a client has no Internet connection, which is why you'd be onsite!

re: Write down your passwords

wisher — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:02:21 GMT

I use keepass and I find it good.

Do you think that PasswordSafe is better?

re: Write down your passwords

Patrick Ogenstad — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:27:14 GMT

I'm a happy user of Passwordsafe, the only issues I've had is that sometimes the passwords doesn't get sent to the clipboard when I click on an entry.

Did you get any instructions for how to create a backup for that book? :)

re: Write down your passwords

Kevin I — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:17:20 GMT

KeePass is a great tool for that as well. It is MUCH more functional. My favorite part, I can put in alternate names and passwords, and I can actually send them over TS session to log me in. So I can set it up to 'auto-type' just the password (not the username/password -- it's configurable) and have multiple logins and get into any of them with a push of a button. Fantastic.

I highly suggest you check it out, very cool - and a lot of even nicer security features for those that are truly paranoid, although I tend to turn them off (you have to check it out to understand)

http://keepass.info/index.html