A Pain in the Password

With the New Year, I decided to take more steps to “go green.” I would do my banking and pay household bills on-line. Once again, the ugly “registration and password” requirement rears its ugly head.

When all this password nonsense first started, I had a system – pick one password and use it for everything. The IT security gurus were on that trick in a flash. “Minimum of 8 characters.” “Must contain upper and lower case.” “Both numbers and letters required.” Once password directives like this began to appear, my ship was sunk.

It’s a sign of the times I suppose. The only “password” you used to need to remember was the combination on your high school locker. Now, we have log ins and passwords for everything. Last count, I was up to 39. Until recently, I keep this information safely stored in my top desk drawer, scrawled on scraps of paper. As my web site log-ins grew, so did the scraps of paper.

I got smart. I created an Excel spreadsheet of all my passwords. Then, I placed it on my computer’s desktop, for easy access. Convenient? Yes, but the scraps of paper in my desk drawer were probably more secure. So, guess what? I password protected the spreadsheet. Yet one more password to remember.

I’m sure I am not alone in password hell. How many passwords do you have?

Friends and family, when I die, just know I put a copy of the spreadsheet with my logins and passwords with my Will – in a Lock Box at the bank. Of course, you’ll need a key for that . . .