donutsweeper (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
donutsweeper) wrote2014-01-30 11:05 pm
donutsweeper) wrote2014-01-30 11:05 pm
Passwords
A recent conversation I had with something bemoaning having to remember passwords and the problem of mistyping or not remembering them too many times reminded me of an idea I came up with when I had to remember constantly changing ones.
Back when I was working, passwords were the bane of my existence. There were three different ones required and they had to be changed every month. (This was above and beyond the main database one with the clever username AND password of "admin"). Anyway, work had assigned me a username, but keeping track of the passwords (all needed to be at least 12 digits long, contain capitalizations, numbers AND symbols) was driving me insane until I figured out something I could do to remember them other than writing them down (something not really possible, since I shared a desk and workstation with my boss).
I picked a tv show for each. To boot up the system I used Torchwood, so the first month was "EverythingChanges(S1E1)" then "DayOne(S1E2)" then "GhostMachine(S1E3)" etc. My email was NCIS so "YankeeWhite(E1S2)" etc etc and the membership files was Doctor Who. If an episode title wasn't long enough I repeated it, so DW's first episode became "Rose(S1E1)Rose(S1E1)". Episode titles are easily googleable so all you have to do is remember where you were in the list to remember what it is.
With luck you won't have to change them as often as I did, but if you ever need a trick for coming up with one and being able to remember it, hopefully this idea will help. :)
Back when I was working, passwords were the bane of my existence. There were three different ones required and they had to be changed every month. (This was above and beyond the main database one with the clever username AND password of "admin"). Anyway, work had assigned me a username, but keeping track of the passwords (all needed to be at least 12 digits long, contain capitalizations, numbers AND symbols) was driving me insane until I figured out something I could do to remember them other than writing them down (something not really possible, since I shared a desk and workstation with my boss).
I picked a tv show for each. To boot up the system I used Torchwood, so the first month was "EverythingChanges(S1E1)" then "DayOne(S1E2)" then "GhostMachine(S1E3)" etc. My email was NCIS so "YankeeWhite(E1S2)" etc etc and the membership files was Doctor Who. If an episode title wasn't long enough I repeated it, so DW's first episode became "Rose(S1E1)Rose(S1E1)". Episode titles are easily googleable so all you have to do is remember where you were in the list to remember what it is.
With luck you won't have to change them as often as I did, but if you ever need a trick for coming up with one and being able to remember it, hopefully this idea will help. :)
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I use the 'first letters of a quote' method, use the same two quotes for most things, and add an identifier to the end to make them different. So I'll use something like "miles to go before I sleep" which would turn into "m2gb4Is" then add "G00" for google or "Y@h00" for Yahoo (I don't use any of those IRL, incidentally ;)) They look random but are easy to remember. The only drawback is that you find yourself typing in the rhythm of the poem/song!
It works pretty well - I have 3 in general rotation, then a 4th that I only use for money stuff. The ones that get me are my banking ones, where they seem to want four passwords, a six-number code and possibly your DNA sequence before they let you into your account...