The Powertool Shed

Five years ago, when online, you might have had just a single password to remember for your email address. Nowadays though it’s not exceptional to have 20 or 30 passwords created for countless online services you’ve signed up to. And you can predict what happens : A good many individuals are inclined to utilise the very same password for all or nearly all the services they’ve signed up to. Some people may not consider their Facebook member profile as being hugely vital, but it is if you’re using the very same password as you are for your WorldPay account. Of course, the convenience of having to remember just a single password is persuasive, but what if an individual gets hold of that one password? You guessed it, they potentially have their mitts on all of the servives you’ve signed up to that use that same password. And if you are tempted to think they can’t know the other online services you’ve signed up to, they simply don’t need to. They can launch programs which examine literally thousands of services and try to match your account name/password pairing that they know about.

This is a problem we all have to think about, but it can be solved. The truth is, it’s not essential to store each and every account name/password. Why? Your browser can remember this information. Be it your MySpace login or Email password. Ask your browser to remember each account name/password, and then have a central password (”master password”) just in case an individual gets hold of your computer. If they do so, they will have to key in the master password in order to login to any of your services. So in effect, you can join dozens of online services, and only have to remember one single password : your master password for your web browser.

In terms of thinking of passwords themselves, make them random and long, such as K94545Dcd which is a variety of lower and upper case characters and numbers. As it’s not required to remember them, be as obscure as you wish. A word of warning : don’t use dictionary phrases as your password, as these are effortless to discover for 3rd parties.