Originally Posted By: Tbone-AZStu, i see that kind of thing all the time.
I was just running a rainbow table check last week against client passwords. I had to order the notification of thousands of clients that they have to change their passwords.
The common things that i hear with this is that "I have to remember to many passwords" so they either use the same one over and over, or they copy it to a unsecure note in their phone, but then leave their wifi and blue tooth services turned on. (which is worse is a coin toss)
For those that are not real tech focused.
I would strongly suggest that you think up 3 passwords. It should have a special character like # or &, a capitalized letter, and a number or two minimum. It should be a total of 8 long minimum. I also recommend a phrase or saying you like.
example:
JoinPred@torM22sters
I suggest that you create 3 of these. One for the internet sites.. You don't really care about. Then one for all things private. Email is an example of this.
Then I would make one for Financial sites. Bank, Credit cards, and those kinds of things.
Clear your cookies, clear you history, and if you are not on the computer shut it off. It can't be hacked or corrupted if it's not on.
I hate passwords anymore. Back in the day, and I know I'm dating myself (my wife won't let anyone else date me), when we had BBS you had to dial in and if 5 other people beat you to it you got a busy signal. And it took forever to download 1 low resolution picture of a naked lady. Anyway.
Then the passwords came. No real issue. Then you would need the passwords with a number. No biggie. Then you need a number and 1 special character no biggie. Then 1 number, 1 capital, and 1 special. No biggie.
I have a set # of passwords I can remember that follow the general requirements.
Now I have some sites, you need all of the above EXCEPT a special. Or all of the above EXCEPT a number. And now you need to do a new one every x days, and it can't be any of the last 100 you used here.
Now you're just [beeep] with me. To do things 'right' I need 50 entirely unique passwords made of random combinations of letters, numbers, special characters, some with spaces and some without, some of which don't even follow the standards of all the others. I need to change them religiously, remember them all, and at no time can I write them down.
I'm a smart guy. I tested into Mensa in the 4th grade. At any given time, I am the smartest person in the room (especially when I'm by myself). And there's just no way in [beeep] I can do this. I'm not a living computer, I'm just good at conceptualizing and manipulating things in my mind. And I'm getting older so it's not going to get any better.
I'm honestly not worried too much about my privacy. I'm looking forward to getting a chip implanted in me to do away with all of the above. I figure if you have my hand and want to look at my browser history I have bigger problems anyway. Because you have my hand.