How do you manage your passwords?

Since passwords aren’t going away for now, I asked a few on how do they manage their passwords. Here are some responses:

• Write them on a paper / notepad and keep it in the drawer.
• Keep them in a Word/Excel spreadsheet and password-protect the file.
• Use client-based software (example: KeePass, PasswordSafe, 1Password).
• Use external password managers that plugs into your PC (example: IDVault, IronKey) – to avoid the portability issue with the previous option.
• Use the browser ‘remember password’ feature.
• Use browser based password managers (example: Roboform, Sxipper, LastPass).
• Use the same password everywhere (hey…most convenient and SSO )
• Use the same password for a set of sites and mentally segregate them in various categories (e.g. work, home, finance).
• Use the same password everywhere but a different username.
• Use a personal algorithm (example: AbC<sitename>123). Easy to remember; portable; different for each site and results in a complex password.
• Use a passphrase (example: “I really love this blog” or a derivation “irltb”. Even better if the phrase is in a foreign language).

By the way, here are some good tips from Microsoft on creating passwords.

2 Responses to “How do you manage your passwords?”

1. Josh Surber says:

   March 7, 2009 at 12:59 pm

   I use the supergenpass bookmarklet (http://supergenpass.com). I only have one password I have to remember but each site has a differnet pass, with a mix of lower, upper, and digits. Seems most secure to my but I guess if my master pass falls into the wrong hands I’m fucked.
2. Lode says:

   March 9, 2009 at 5:06 am

   I use OpenID (with two-factor authentication on my OpenID account) wherever possible.
   For sites that don’t support OpenID, I generate a “strong” password, and save it in the Mac OS keychain.