To have only 1 or 2/more different Passwords?
By jaimz19
@jaimz19 (236)
Philippines
September 5, 2011 3:53pm CST
I was just trying to look back on the sites that I've visited and registered online and I noticed that I have different passwords for them. I even had difficulty at remembering some even if they were more/less almost the same. So I was thinking, would it be best to have only one password for everything to make it easier to remember or to have different passwords to be on the safer side? What do you think? What's the best way of doing it? Of course, I won't risk the security of my info but I just hope there's a better easier way of things rather than opting on changing your password every month/couple of months just like what I used to do. I don't like to keep a written record of it also so I'm kinda lost at it sometimes. Good thing there's a "Forgot Password?" button.
1 person likes this
2 responses
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
6 Sep 11
From a security point of view it is always recommended to have a different password for each site and to change them regularly. Also, each password should be 8 characters or more with a mixture of upper case, lower case, numerals and symbols and should not be made up of easily guessed words or information.
That is the ideal, of course. In practice, many people do use the same password for many sites and, not only that, they use very simple, relatively easy to guess passwords. One of the most common passwords is 'password' (How dumb can you get!).
There are many techniques for making passwords memorable - one simple one is to replace some of the letters with numbers or symbols and to include capitals as well as lowercase: 'p@5$w0Rd' would be rather harder to guess than 'password' (but still not a very safe one to use!). It is still possible to write this kind of password down (in a safe place) with a fair degree of security so that it is not immediately obvious what the password is - only you, for example, would know which letters are replaced with numbers and symbols and capitals.
Most browsers can store your username and password for you, if you want. This is only useful, of course, if you mostly work on one machine and only you have access to it or you have your own account on that machine.
Another method is to use a separate password manager. There are some free ones available and some for which you pay. These keep all of your passwords in one encrypted list which you access with a single very 'strong' password. The database can be quite safely kept on your hard disk or some allow you to store it on a USB drive (which you can use on different machines). Some of these softwares will actually generate and store VERY strong passwords of a random selection of characters ... even you may not have to know or remember the password! Most of these will enter the username and password automatically for each site you visit.
@celticeagle (164984)
• Boise, Idaho
6 Sep 11
Your stronger passwords are those mixed with letters and numbers. They say it is safest to have a different one for each site. Why not keep a record on a notepad? How can you remember them all unless they are all the same or close? If you use the site alot you should be able to remember it or maybe not have quite so many sites. Hmmmm?
