Passwords

I bet you would.

That would be telling...

For pin numbers, you can use your mobile phone.

In your phone keypad, type a name you can remember, let's say PAUL. That would equate to the number 7285. It is much easier to remember a name that is familiar to you than a number. Do NOT write this name down.

For passwords, I use a combination of a memorable word and a memorable number, just insert the number anywhere within the word and you have a strong password. Say your word is family and your number is 202, your password could be fam202ily, for an even stronger password use a mixture of upper/lower case and other characters such as £$*()~

We have had a thread about this before, with people posting the various ways they encode their passwords. It worried me then, because this is a public site, with anyone in the whole wide world able to read what is posted here, and there is so much detail about our lives that it could be possible to identify us. Why make it easier for them to get your secrets?

So I wouild say that the best way to hide your password is so that no-one knows how you are hiding it and not to reveal your method on here.

Juggling the letters of the name of the website that the password lets you into sounds to me like one of the worst ways - it wouldn't even need Alan Turing, that is one of the first things that a hacker would try.

If you want to juggle something, make it a word that no-one but you would think of.

Thanks. Yes, I understand about the way to come up with a strong single password but I have dozens of passwords. The problem is remembering them all and which ones they are used for.

I had a good system, and then one day I was on the phone to PlusNet when he said "Ooh, that's a good password you've got there if I may say so".

I don't think there is an easy way. We are always being told not to write them down, but you would need to be Lesley Welch to remember them all.

You could write them all in a Word document, and then lock that with a single strong password that you have not written down. Just make sure you remember the master password!

Mine is Tmzee

Oops now you know

DH has loads of different passwords when he buys things. He says that that way, he can tell where spam is coming from and can the inform the company that he is buying from that there is a leak of some kind. He always tells them.

Passwords with lots of numbers are best.

The problem isn't just recording them, but having them with you when you need them. When I went cycle touring there was only three places to keep anything: left pannier, right pannier and bumbag. That had to carry money, chequebook, cards, and a method of remembering passwords. When the bike is parked, the panniers are just there in the street for anyone to rummage through. The best you can do is not put all your eggs in one basket.

I've found that the problem with having 'systems' for remembering passwords is that sooner or later you come across someone who dictates a format that's not compatible with what you've got.

My mum keeps her debit card PIN written on a scrap of paper with the card in her purse, so not surprisingly, her bank account got emptied within minutes of her purse getting stolen. I was surprised that the Halifax refunded it.

Not the names of family members, not the names of pets, not the names of streets where you have lived, not the names of schools you went to. Pick something out of the blue and unexpected in terms of your life. If you're into ballet, pick something to to do with boxing. Alternatively, if you're into gardening, pick the botanical [Latin] name of a rare exotic plant that would never grow in your climate. Then add some numbers – not family birthdays, not previous addresses and not at the beginning or end of the word. Best of all, use numbers and symbols such as asterisks, dollar signs and punctuation marks in apparently random order.

When I worked in a bank I came across several people who wrote their PIN on their cash card!

Seems I spend just as much time resetting passwords as I do buying on line , would love to know how to remember them without writing down! Memory of a gnat I suspect.....

I use a browser add-on called 'LastPass' on my Windows computer. Visit a site and LastPass automatically fills in the username and password fields.

I know there will be justifiable concern about storing passwords online but LastPass is secure because the encryption and decryption of passwords is kept on the computer. I trust it with all logins apart from those used for financial sites. I'm pretty sure even these would be stored securely but for peace of mind, they are kept in a password protected file on the computer instead.

LastPass generates secure passwords as well, so no need to think them up. LastPass generated passwords consist of a random string of uppercase/lowercase letters and numbers. These passwords can be copied and written on a piece of paper or stored in a computer file. This isn't absolutely necessary though because LastPass stores them automatically anyway.

I've been using LastPass for many different sites for about 4 years and have had no problems so far.

I write mine down in one of my books by the computer.
I have a whole range of passwords.
Who is going to steal them?
Only someone who scoops all passwords of a company.

No one can find us anyway.
We have to give people complicated directions for them even to manage to find us. The last thing on their mind, even if they did, would be our passwords.

My passwords are on a Google document on my Chromebook laptop. The catch there is that I need to use a password to get into the laptop, so also have it in my diary. I must get round to memorising it.

I'm past caring. I use the same two passwords, with slight variations, for everything and have them listed on a document file somewhere on my laptop...

What, really, is the worst that could happen?

I do more or less the same Ana, there's nothing they can access anyway.

It's still not straight forward. I have a written list for website passwords for but I cannot always decipher the encoded clues I have concocted. These are the logins for Gransnet and other forums, shopping places,My family history site etc. These are separate from financial stuff.

The other day I thought I had overwritten the list of various website passwords with a blank file. I rescued it eventually. but to have lost it all would have been a nightmare.

My financial PINs etc are as safe as they can be, which is not infallible, but as obscure as I can make it.

Some sites though make their passwords so complicated they are a nightmare.
The number of times I have had to change some of the more complicated ones. I got locked out of Gransnet the other day.

I just keep changing them. I use a combination of where I went on holiday and the year I went. Tends to stop me buying anything on line .

At the very least you should have a password on the file that holds your other passwords, and try not to use anything that could be guessed.

There have been a spate of burglaries in my area around Christmas, and the thieves seem to like taking PVCs and laptops. Once they have them, they can take their time investigating what is on them before selling them on.

If anyone got into your shopping places password, could they order thousands of pounds worth of stuff, delivered to them, and paid for by the card number that the shopping place has conveniently stored for you? They could go into the account and change the delivery address.

And if you use the same password for everything, they only need to get into one account and they are right into your whole life. The first thing they would do is to try that password on all the accounts mentioned on your pc/laptop.

Well, of course they could in theory - but I think my bank would soon twig, because I don't have thousands of pounds in my account.

I don't do online banking.

Apparently you are not liable in cases of 'card not present fraud' including unauthorised transactions that are made over the phone, using the internet and through mail order companies.

This is the most common form of card fraud (under the category of identity theft) and requires the criminals to obtain the card's details but not the card itself, nor the PIN number.

(Got that from an advisory website)