[PCWorld]

Post your comments for One-Third Use a Single Password for Everything here

[mjd420nova]

I use a combination of passwords and also inter-change letters and numbers to insure better security. Names of children, pets and real or cartoon characters is a big no-no for me. The intermixing of numbers also makes it harder for others to either guess or deduce.

[Hiliftjack]

The author makes a politically correct point but to be able to follow such a policy is absurd. I just counted my list (printed and kept at my desk) of 71 Web sites and passwords. When I travel I have to take the list with me. If somebody robs me or I loose the list, they have it all. What else can I do? Its like having to have a different key to every entry door, toilet door and closet door in my house. Lets face it. Its not practical! Lets spend more time getting a more secure environment and reduce this security problem. Put the bad guys in Jail!

[WinTard]

No wonder there is so much malware out there, affecting so many. And the culprits blame vulnerabilities in the OS! Yet to others, by being diligent, malware simply doesn't exist.

Perhaps technology should come to assist? How about biometrics seed key, and some password managers, including functions to reset them from various online sites (such as forgotten password, back to your registered email) but done so we don't even know the password, except to the password manager? Food for thought... Of course the password manager must have a combination of a password, plus the biometrics. No security through obfuscation. Open-source and free would be best.

For older systems not implementing biometrics yet, a simple secure, encrypted USB memory key would suffice. Just don't lose the key, or keep a backup in a safe place, elsewhere. Just in case your house, or workplace burns down to the ground... Hey you never know for sure...

~~~~~~~~~
Programming is like sex. One mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life.
~ Michael Sinz

The procedure is to remove and clean your customer's balls.
~ IBM mouse service manual

Software is like sex: it's better when it's free.
~ Linus Torvalds, father of the Linux OS

[number6]

The problem is with the user. No matter how much security you put into something, if it's easy enough for the common user to get through, the hacker will too.

[gundark]

@ Hiliftjack:
I use the opensource program Password Safe for my passwords. I load it on a USB stick as well as my local machine.
It generates all passwords (very secure ones) for me. I have it protected with a secure password created using the "first letter from every word in a sentence plus numbers" method.
There's only one password I need to remember. Since I always carry that USB stick with me, my passwords are available at pretty much any PC I happen to use.
Check out Password Safe.
http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/

[krawly]

Here is a tip. When signing up for something that requires a email address and password, do not use the password that belongs to that email address you used to register on a website. I knew of a person whom would always check peoples email this way. He would find banking info all the way up to knotty pictures of girlfriends. You would think most people would not do it, but a lot do...

[WinTard]

@ gundark thank you! I didn't know about that, and am immediately going to try and probably adopt it! Thanks again my friend.

[HighSierra]

I think most of these so called "security experts" are blowing smoke out of their you know what.
Most web sites that you register for don't hold any information that you need to secure, so you can use one password for them all. Just make sure that your email and banking passwords are strong.