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Betsy
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Does anyone have a brilliant way to organize Login Names and Passwords?
I just got my very old Ebay and Yahoo Mail accounts hacked into.  This is something that I have needed to do for a long time and just haven't gotten around to it.
What do you do to keep track? Memory? Pen and Paper? App?
Thanks!
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ImmaculataDesigns.com
When handcrafting my work, I always pray that it will raise your heart to all that is true, modest, just, holy, lovely and good fame!
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Barb.b
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I have a little notebook - which I HIDE. I keep thinking if my house was robbed and someone had the notebook. . . I know paranoid but really makes me hide it. It is small so easy to hide. And I change places often. But its easier to remember where I put the notebook then all the passwords and logins in my life!
Barb
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Betsy
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| Posted: Nov 14 2012 at 9:54am | IP Logged
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Barb.b wrote:
I have a little notebook - which I HIDE. I keep thinking if my house was robbed and someone had the notebook. . . I know paranoid but really makes me hide it. It is small so easy to hide. And I change places often. But its easier to remember where I put the notebook then all the passwords and logins in my life!
Barb |
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Thanks Barb, is your little *hidden* book alphabetized or do you just put them in there as you need them?
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Nov 14 2012 at 10:04am | IP Logged
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I have some standard words I use for places I don't feel need to be quite so secure (like here for instance).
Then, for everything else, I have a quote that I use the first letters from, adding in numbers, too, tagging on the initials for the site at the end.
For instance, if my quote were "To be or not to be," my password would be "2bon2b" and for facebook it would be "2bon2bfb" then for amazon/audible "2bon2ba" etc... Once you find a phrase that includes numbers or words that can be represented by a number, it is really simple and all your passwords can be alike enough to remember them.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Nov 14 2012 at 10:06am | IP Logged
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Oh, and my quote is one where I can use the first half or both halves. For some things, I just use the first, but for others, I might use the whole thing "2bon2btitqa" (To be or not to be, that is the question, amazon.)
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Barb.b
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No, not alphabetized - just put in as I go. Sometimes I have to rewrite them and throw away the old pages because I occasionally (2 times per year maybe) redo passwords. So if I don't rewrite it - it becomes very messy!
Barb
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Betsy
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| Posted: Nov 14 2012 at 10:34am | IP Logged
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Barb, that is why I asked! I was trying to envision how much space to leave. However, I can also imagine writing one done and not finding it easily. 
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When handcrafting my work, I always pray that it will raise your heart to all that is true, modest, just, holy, lovely and good fame!
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Mimip
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I have a friend that uses an address book. She puts the site in according to the first letter and then just like Barb hides it around her house.
My husband is SUPER PARANOID so we change our passwords almost monthly on most of the sites so that would not work for us. When we change passwords we make up a new way to remember them. One time we used all the children in our best friends family along with their birth dates.
Passwords are a pain to change often but we have gotten used to it now and when chores rotate so do our passwords.
Oh and by the way, Betsy, we started all of this changing of passwords after our Paypal account got hacked, so you are in good company.
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In Christ,
Mimi
Wife of 16 years to Tom, Mom of DD'00, DD'02, '04(in heaven) DS'05, DS'08 and DS '12
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Betsy
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Mimip wrote:
Oh and by the way, Betsy, we started all of this changing of passwords after our Paypal account got hacked, so you are in good company. |
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Scary! That is really what I am afraid of right now. I have so many passwords for my business---and if one of those got hacked it would be horrible! 
Also, because I have so many I can't remember them all on my head any more AND if I ever needed my DH to get into one of my accounts without me he would have no clue.
Thanks for all of the help!
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TracyFD
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My husband set up a little program on the computer called KeyPass. It creates high security passwords and stores them. You have to create a password to open it, then once it's open you can find your passwords, copy & paste, or auto-type. I love it and have no idea what I would do without it!
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cathhomeschool
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My brother is a LAN Admin and knows a lot about computer security. He says that common ways to have accounts hacked are:
- You share your password with someone or write your password down and someone takes the paper
- you get a virus on your computer that installs a keylogger (And maybe you don't have all of the windows updates installed or are running something like Windows XP, which is fairly insecure and easy to hack.)
- You've bought something through etsy or some other low security website and their database is hacked
He has the following suggestions:
1. Do not share your passwords and don't write them down. If you have to write them down, they can be stolen or lost. If you need to record them, then store them on an encrypted device like an Ironkey. Then, you only have to remember 1 password (the password to open the encrypted device) and you get access to all your other passwords.
2. Don't go to websites that you don't trust, don't click advertisements, don't buy things from non-professional websites, and keep your Windows updates and antivirus updates running and up-to-date. Most viruses install because you clicked something you shouldn't and either (1) you have a vulnerability on your computer that could easily be fixed by running Windows Update regularly or (2) you don't have a virus scanner. For most home users, Microsoft's Security Essentials is a malware and AV program that downloads and installs for free from Microsoft Update, so if you just keep your computer updated through that free service, you can kill 2 birds with one stone.
3. Switch to using 2 passwords and 2 email accounts -- one high security username, password, and email account which you use to log in to banking sites, credit cards, paypal, etc. and a second username, password, and email account associated with low-security sites and companies that have a higher chance of getting hacked like online retailer accounts, local bill pay systems like utilities or gas companies, junk email accounts, Facebook or other social media sites, etc. That way you will limit your exposure (since the folks who will likely be hacked are in the "low-security" group and in that event, a hacker will only have widespread access to your less-important accounts). This also makes things easy to remember since you only need 2 sets of credentials, and if you ever have a reason to believe you've been hacked, you know exactly what needs to be changed. Naturally, this also avoids the need to write down passwords since you have fewer passwords to remember.
4. When you pick your passwords, use a long sentence or "passphrase" where the last word is changeable and where the phrase makes no sense, isn't related to you in any real way, and doesn't make sense as a normal sentence. For example, your password could start off as "The Statue of Liberty is made of Snickers!", and then, your next password could be "The Statue of Liberty is Climbing Up Mudslides?" You do this because when hackers steal large caches of passwords, the main attempts used against those password caches can either (1) reveal the first 16 characters of the password and/or (2) create a substitute password that will be able to replace your password. (Yes, that's possible.) However, if you use a long password (40 or more characters) with complexity (uses uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and punctuation), current hacking techniques won't be able to crack your entire password or create a substitute password, and human beings won't be able to make educated guesses on the entire password (since the passphrase is gibberish). However, since your passphrase is a standard sentence, it will be fairly easy for you to remember.
5. Using things like your childrens' names and birthdates is a horrible idea. This approach can make your password more easily guessable (since it's based on information that relates to you and can probably be partially found and/or guessed by a diligent hacker). In addition, if your password is somehow hacked, not only is your sensitive information available to a hacker, but so are other personal details of your life (like your kids' names and birthdates). Since personal details are often used to answer security challenge questions on websites, this even further complicates and compromises you. The same would go for making a password out of the name of your Elementary school when growing up, your best friend's name, or your pet's name -- all choices that are used in security challenge questions and thus, not so good.
I hope this helps!
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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Betsy
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Thanks Janette...that is very helpful. I have some work to do this weekend. 
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MaryM
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Yes, Janette, that was super helpful.
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cathhomeschool
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Betsy wrote:
| I have some work to do this weekend. |
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Me too!
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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Barb.b
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So - I still have sooo many passwords - is it safe to have the same "passphrase" for all of them. Because no way would I remember the same phrase for all? GEEE - just counted 20 places I have to have passwords for??? Just don't know. I get what you are saying about the phrase - but I'm not sure - I KNOW I couldn't remember 20 nonsense phrases.
Barb
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cathhomeschool
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Maybe one phrase for things like facebook and yahoo and a different phrase for your bank, credit card sites, etc.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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CrunchyMom
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No, it's the same phrase for them all, but the initials make them unique. The important thing is that it is not a word found in the dictionar or popularly, nor is it something easily guessed from personal information like birthdays.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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CrunchyMom
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Sorry, I missed Janette's excellent post and was referring to my pass phrase where I use the initials representing it instead. I think that you can still use the same concept so that you can make the passwords unique without being completely different.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Barb.b
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I am still researching this - every article I read says to have a different password for every site. We may think we are tricking hackers by using initials of a nonsense sentence - but what if we are JUST one step ahead of the hackers? IF they do get ahold of our password - they would get everything, SOOOO - I think I will create a long nonsense phrase for a few (maybe 3) accounts. But I will create a different phrase for each one. . .
Barb
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Barb.b
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FOGET IT. I am completely frustrated with this. So, I need 4 of my accounts to have secure password. Trying to make 4 nonsense sentences I will remember without writing down isn't possible. THis is stressing me out. I keep thinking - no. I won't remember that tomorrow! Going to keep my same stupid system of writing them down. The hackers will have to come into my house, unlock where they are hidden! This way my passwords can be nonsense I remember!
Barb
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Topic: Organizing Passwords & Login Names?
