password overload.
 

should i do a search before i rant about this too? nope, i dont care.

how many of you are passworded to death? here is what i got.

2 just to get into my computer
email- lotus notes, it sux
parts ordering, this gets deleted if not used in like 60 or 90 days. i gave up getting new ones and use someone elses now.
another one for parts returns. i use someone elses
logging, i have to enter in 2 different places. it also has to be the same as another program, so those have to be changed together.
time sheet
credit carde bill
one to check my pay
one for travel
ive got 3 here i think are all for training
so thats i think 15 passwords along with user IDs, oh, and they are all written down beside my desk because i cant remember them all, surprise surprise. so how secure is it that EVERYONE here has to wriite down 15-20 passwords? and yes they are all work related.
not to mention passwords i have to log into equipment. lets see
the radar has 1, really 2 if i reinstall the software because one is default.
the radar test equipment password, 1 maybe 2
the artsystem has 3 different users and passwords
the voice recorder
the voice switch
thats about 7 more.
this is my favorite thing, some of the programs pop up and say, your password will expire in ## days. why not just make you change your password. and another thing, there are some that do pop up and make you change your password, but make you reneter it when i just entered it to get the change password screen. some programs make us change as often as 30 days.
ok, i feel better, the meds are kicking in now.:D

Just put them all on a yellow sticky under your keyboard.

Or get a password management program.

good point; its crazy.
I keep a binder of all the crap.

Changed one password once and forgot to record it.... took a few days to crack it.
It was a clients web access code and during a visit he told me that an employee had left and he didn't want him to access the info anymore. So I said, no problem and we changed it.

A few months later, he calls me and says he can't get into his site because his PC deleted all his memory of passwords; what is it again? Crap! Turned out to be the guys name followed by his favorite rifle type "3006"; it came to me after a couple days of trying about 1000 different passwords. Ha, ha.

hahaha. T77, you crack me up. this topic has been discussed before! but i dont care either.

passwords would be cake, if you didnt have to change them up every 30 days....my lotus notes lady knows me by name..

Yeah, I'm about the same. I try to use variations of one or two most places, but these days the security policy is making it difficult. You've got to have letters, numbers, capitals, maybe special characters, and, you have to change them every 60 or 90 days, and the last 24 passwords can't repeat, which means you've got 6 years of passwords.

Yeah, it's a pain in the rear.

I like the one when the program tells you that "that password cant be used because its not secure enough!"

Well, if its not secure enough then maybe no one else will guess it?

pick a word, any word, one that you will remember

Start it with a capital letter
place 00 in the middle someplace
end it with one of the required punctation marks

When you have to change the password, increment the 00

I used the same password with 2 companies. 1st one required us to change the password every 30 days. 2nd company every 90 days. I was up to 38!

a sticky?
thats funny, i already have a full page of passwords, i would need more than one.

GOV computers, like many, i cant add programs.


another good one is when they change the criteria and dont let you know what it is.
like one was, the first letter had to be a capital, next time it changed to it had to be a number. you had to keep typeing new PW until one worked.

not looking for a solution, i just want to rant. somebody on another post put me in a bad mood.

thanks vash. you gave me a laugh.

Keychain.

I'm in IT and have multiple computers, laptops, etc tons of email accounts, misc web logins, plus all my personal online logins (banking, credit cards, etc etc). I use Roboform on a USB drive, it helps with "key logger" type hacks and I only have to remember 1 master password. I highly recommend it!

Won't you need a password to access the password management program? :D

this is a good idea. i'll google it.

the password situation is out of hand. what good is a password, if it is so complicated you have to write it down? isn't the whole point of a password to be personal information, contained in one's head, and therefore unable to fall into the wrong hands by mere accident?

you need only 2 or 3 passwords

all low level crap stuff should get the easiest one to recall and simplest to type - change them all to that

then 1 or 2 for things that ought to be secure

We just have a big ole' text document with all our passwords on it. We keep it encrypted.

i already do this and it is still a boondoggle.

There's an IPhone App for that...:D

For the not important stuff, like logging into PP, I have one pwd, *******, that gets used for all sites and applications.

For the important stuff, like online banking, if it doesn't require periodic password changes, I use the same pwd for all such sites and applications. It is *******.

For the important stuff that does require periodic password changes, I do what is suggested above - I use ******* and increment the numbers.

There is a BB app for it too. But it takes a password to get into it. Same on the iPhone...

Insane.

I used to use a password manager program on my Palm Pilot (this was several years ago). Then the battery died and I lost everything. I couldn't access the backup (on my pc) because I couldn't remember the password to unlock it. No joke.

I now use a notebook that's in a locked fire safe, but it's still insane. Between passwords for EVERYTHING (including non-financial stuff with no need for it) and constant "you need to download this update" crap, using a computer is becoming more and more of a PITA.

Thank heavens for Firefox's password manager (auto-remember thingy). But it doesn't work on all sites and actually more and more sites are deliberately setting themselves up to not work with it and things like it.

The best password Management tool is KeePass: http://keepass.info/

Just remember one large sentence ie. something from a song.. easy..

I've used a similar technique for years. We've got some systems though that complain there are not 3 characters unique from the previous password! And my usual format of password has a special character, yet we have some systems that don't allow them! So now I've got a "special character" version of password, and one without.

Well, those passwords are for the super duper encrypted places. I have another system for ones that require simplers ones.

What killed Alan Luddon for $100 ?

Ironically , took out my cookies and had to log in again here, almost forgot my password..

I live the password nightmare everyday as well.

But a real pet peeve is those damn challenge questions some systems also use. No joke, once I had a challenge question "what is your dog's name" and the answer had to be at least six characters. My dog had a 5 character name so I had to put a 9 at the end. WTF is up with that? Of course I forgot, and later had to call the helpdesk and rant at them for the idiotic design.

here is latest with the password saga.
i have not been in this one program for a while. i enter my ID and PW, bad PW, so i have request a new one, 15 minute wait. i get the new one, type it in and of course it has to be changed, which is fine, but they make me RE type the current password that i JUST typed in, and make a new PW. when it is done, it logs me out and says i can log back in in 15 minutes!!!! come on, who come up with this crap. whats bad is that another program did the same thing to me not long ago. i just don t get it. they have passworded us so much it is no longer secure, i literally have a have full sheet of paper beside my desk with all my PW's.

i guess this just gives me more time to PELICAN, like work is really gonna take away from this.

Time limits are placed in sensitive programs (like you can only log on once every 15 minutes) to prevents brute-force hacking. If there wasn't some kind of time limit, a hacker can get a program to keep submitting password guesses until it finds it. Locking you out of your account after some number of bad logons accomplishes the same thing.

Without one or both of these, it can take a hacker a matter of minutes to break into a system.

Yep - as hackers get more sophisticated, the passwords need to be more complicated.

I'm in IT as well, and have to manage SEVERAL systems with different passwords. And all of these passwords must be a combination of lowercase/uppercase alpha-numeric sequences. I never write down any of my passwords! Yet, I have been able to remember them (for the most part)

My favorite password ever was: Intergallact1cburntt0ast :)

-Z

I remember most of mine, but have a few that I have to note someplace whether it be in the physical or virtual world.

I'm going to remember this one and use it for something.

Side note: if I change my password just before leaving for vacation, I won't write it down, but will write down something that will jog my memory.

For example, for Intergallact1cburntt0ast I would put a note in my wallet stating: "Scifi bread."
This way, at least my note is one step removed from the actual password.

i think you missed my gripe, i had just logged in, it went straight to the change assword screen, i had to enter my password, AGAIN along with the new assword, then it LOGGED ME OUT (not yelling, just emphasising) and WAIT 15 minutes before i could logg back in. i think i have had 2 different programs do that. how is that secure?

have you seen how many asswords i have? some systems have multiple ID's and PW's. equipement PW= 14, maybe more. PW i use on this computer alone, i have 2 just to turn it on. total i have 17 on the paper next to me. now, you tell me you can remember ALL of those.
since youguys are in IT, why have a banner that pops up to warn me in 9 days my PW will expire, just make me change it. why make me enter my PW when i just entered it to get in and the change PW screen comes up? there was one program that did not tell what the PW had to have, when i changed it, it said wrong format even though that was the previous format, i had to keep trying until i figured it out.
i had to vent, i feel better now.