I keep saying I should do this, and then don’t. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea. It is!
I have a ton of passwords. Lots of people do. Most of us with a bucket of ’em experience alternating states of fear, loss, control, power, suspicion, and deliberate mind exercise. There’s surely other states. Perhaps annoyance, anger, frustration, confusion. Hmmm…insanity? Just a possibility.
Its obviously time for a little helper, or two, or three, or god knows how many, to come on the market and offer us assistance in managing this so unexciting part of our day-to-day technology experience. We could all use it. David Pogue reviews a program he likes. Have a read, and get to know the newest we’re here to help you software. 😉
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Remember All Those Passwords? No Need
By DAVID POGUE
“If you want to avoid having your identity stolen, use long passwords that contain digits, punctuation and no recognizable words. Make up a different password for every Web site. And change all of your passwords every 30 days.”
Have these security pundits ever listened to themselves?
That advice is clearly unfollowable. I currently have account names and passwords for 87 Web sites (banks, airlines, blogs, shopping, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter). How is anyone — even a security professional — supposed to memorize 87 long, complex password strings, let alone remember which goes with which Web site?
So most people use the same password over and over again, and live with the guilt.
There are solutions. Most Mac and Windows Web browsers now offer to memorize passwords for you. But that feature doesn’t work on all Web sites, and is generally of little help when you pick up your phone or tablet. At that point, the only person you’ve locked out of all your online accounts is you.
The only decent solution is to install a dedicated password memorization program (like Roboform, KeePass, LastPass, 1Password, and so on). Last week, one of the best was just improved:Dashlane, now at 2.0. It’s attractive, effective, loaded with timesaving features and available for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android — and it’s free.