My Squirrelly View of Education

As I reviewed the blog posts for this current session of 23Things, one of the more common problems has been keeping track of passwords and log-in IDs for a number of services. I thought I’d discuss a couple of options.

Here are a couple of ideas for remembering passwords.

My favorite is to download and install the free Last Pass plug in for your browser. It remembers passwords, log-ins, and can even create secure passwords. All information is stored in a secure vault  on your computer that only you (the user) can access. All you have to remember is one password. I love it. http://lastpass.com

Another one I got from an article on online security. Let’s assume that your usual user name is “ssz” and you are establishing an account at Amazon.com.

First, decide on a pattern for any site. For example, I decide to use the 1st, 2nd, last letter in the site’s name

Then for the password, tack on your user name shortened to 3 or 4 letters. Add another a number. So now you have: aMn6ssz3

If the site requires a symbol, just add it to the end. (I usually add an underline.) So now you have:

aMn6ssz3_

Use this system for each site. Here are a couple more examples:

Target: tAt6ssz3 or tAt6ssz3_
Netflix: nEx6ssz3 or nEx6ssz3_

Now you have a unique password for each site. As for user names I have two variations. My main one and my emergency backup one. (Just like Dave Barry‘s dog and his emergency backup dog.)

I think you get the idea, but I still think Last Pass is the easier option.