I like using a particular password, but after I was almost snared by a phishing attempt, I needed to change a lot of my accounts because they shared the same password. This was a secure password and easy to remember, however, it’s not really a good idea to use the same password for multiple accounts, so I decided this was a good opportunity to create unique passwords.
I stored the new passwords in a spreadsheet (see What You Need to Know about Passwords), but then I was constantly needing to look up the new passwords. I had made such a variety, I couldn’t remember which password went with which account!
I finally found the solution from a suggestion I found on the internet. I’m now using my “favorite” password (let’s call it strongfavorite) and then add a unique identifier, depending on the account. For instance, my password for Facebook could be strongfavoriteface or strongfavoriteFB. Now all I have to do is remember my favorite password and my identifiers: like hoot for HootSuite or TD for TweetDeck.
NOTES:
- This article describes how to create secure passwords.
- This safe Microsoft site will let you test your password to see how “strong” it is.
- Also see What You Need to Know about Passwords for help on creating a strong password, keeping track of passwords, and advice for using passwords when you use a public computer.
- Above image available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Password.png
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