thescruffypiratedotorg

I don't think most of you are going to find this post all that interesting. But it is something I have thought about a lot!

Man, I tell ya, there is nothing worse than having to sign up for a website and choose a password. And I hear it is bad form to have the same password on every website—but who wants to try and remember all those passwords? And sometimes the website has silly rules for what can and can't be your password. It is a difficult business! What follows is my system, that works on practically all websites out there.

I have two basic passwords.

1. One that doesn't matter, for insecure, trivial websites. If the website url doesn't start with https, this is the one I use. Like on this website. This one is simple, stupid and easy to remember.
2. Another more secure, basically random one that I customize (in the same way everytime) for every website I use it on.

Here is the list of guidelines for choosing a password that works most everywhere. Both of my passwords meet these guidelines.

• At least 8 characters long. Some websites don't let you have 6 or 7 word passwords (which has gotten me in trouble in the past).
• Make it no longer than 12 characters. Some websites have length limits.
• Have capital letters, lowercase letters and numbers. Some sites require this, and most let you have it, so just have it be your default.
• Do not have any characters that aren't letters or numbers!
• Make it so you can type it with one hand. I got this one from Ryan Mason, and boy is it great!

Finally, I mentioned I customize my more secure password for each website I use it on. Here's an example: I might add the last letter of the name of the website to the end of the password. You wouldn't want to make it that simple or obvious (my system is probably overly complicated), but customize it in some way so that if people do get ahold of one of your passwords, they can't run ammuck amongst all your important websites!

What we should all take away from this is that the faster OpenID gets adopted, the better!

Anyway, it's a pretty good system for me! Anyone have other good systems?

30 October 2009 03:22am UTC • 213 views • 1 comment

Tagged with onX, passwords, websites

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1 comment

1. Peon Peetie

   7 November 2009 01:55pm UTC

   i think it's hilarious how passwords work like this. i remember hearing a talk (i think by stefan) at CC about encryption. he mentioned that the govt uses like 350mb encryption keys, which essentially means it would take all the computers in the world 27 years to figure it out. yet people still set their passwords as their wife's name or their dog's name. or worse, they write it on a post-it and stick it under their desk.

   i hate the password thing. my expense report website at work requires that i change my password every THIRTY days, and that i can't use the same one as my last 20 passwords. how silly is that? what am i supposed to do?

   so i write myself an email. hint: most of the passwords are something like "THISwebsiteSuCks2much." because it requires all those silly things.

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