I am one of those people who have problems with passwords. I'm either creating ones that are too weak or I make them so complicated that I forget them immediately after their first use. I try to make them pertain to something in my day to day life so that I'll be likely to remember but I never do.
I used to have a system. I had one password for each of the sites I frequent that was a variation on one word and I was able to remember it, no problem. Then, some of the sites decided that their security wasn't secure enough so they started changing the requirements for their passwords which now had to be at least 8 characters long and include at least one capital letter and a number. This complicated things beyond my comprehension. For instance, just for this blog, in the past several weeks I have had to change my password because I can never remember what the heck the password was in the first place. I wrote down my passwords and keep them right next to my computer. You know, in the most obvious place ever where they say never to keep your passwords. Yeah, there. But the ones that I have written down were changed long ago due to the new rules so the list is useless. I leave it there. If anyone tries to get into any website using those old passwords they will die of frustration. I know...I've tried.
Another thing that irks me is when I think I've thought of a really good password and the website tells me "No, it's not good...try again." How very rude! And first of all, if I am not overly worried that someone will get into my blog, why should you be? And how is an amalgam of my name and my cat's name too weak? That's just silly!
At work, our network asks me to change my password very frequently. I have to write that one down or I'd be lost. I've asked around though and no one else is getting asked to change it quite so much. I'm beginning to get a complex about it.
Oh I do understand the need for secure passwords. I get it. But when I'm on the fifth or sixth or eighteenth try to get into my blog to no avail, I think "marywantsinnow" is as good a password as any!
Showing posts with label internet security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label internet security. Show all posts
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Internet passwords...
Internet security is a hot topic among most people. Keeping things private while being on the world wide web can be tricky. Some people take it very seriously and others, like me, may not take it serious enough. Though I am very careful with what I share on the internet, I have to admit that when it comes to passwords for various sites I'm not always the most creative or the most secure.
When I first entered the web, I was good at creating passwords that only I would know or could remember through a series of personal questions. But over the years, after the sites want new and updated passwords, I discovered that I tend to forget whatever the password was and also I've lost my creativity. Any combo of numbers and letters would suffice but the more complicated it is, the less likely I am to remember it at all. So I end up with passwords on sticky notes on my desk and that is hardly secure! Case in point, to get into my blog today I had to rest my password having forgot the last one I made up. Now I've written it down but know I will probably forget this one too. And I hate those sites that tell you whatever you made up is too weak and won't let you use it. I mean, it's a blog...not a case of national security! Just accept my weak attempt and let me in already!
Worse yet are the sites that require a combination of upper and lower case and at least one number. Seriously people! Oh, and the new password cannot be something you've used before ever...in your lifetime. There are only so many clever one word ideas I can have. I'm running out of ideas here!
At work, for some reason, our networks asks us to change our password more frequently that some people change their minds. It's maddening. I almost see it as a challenge when I get the pop up that says "You have 14 days before your password expires. Do you want to change it now?" I let it go to the final hour. I hate that pop up.
Now I do understand the benefits of keeping my personal information secure so I'm not eschewing the idea altogether. I'm just saying that for me, a perpetual password forgetter, it gets rather tedious to keep changing them all the time. If I could come up with a method of remembering I might not complain so much. But until then, I'll rely on my security questions and as long as I recall my mother's maiden name, where I went to high school and where I want to live when I retire, everything should be okay.
When I first entered the web, I was good at creating passwords that only I would know or could remember through a series of personal questions. But over the years, after the sites want new and updated passwords, I discovered that I tend to forget whatever the password was and also I've lost my creativity. Any combo of numbers and letters would suffice but the more complicated it is, the less likely I am to remember it at all. So I end up with passwords on sticky notes on my desk and that is hardly secure! Case in point, to get into my blog today I had to rest my password having forgot the last one I made up. Now I've written it down but know I will probably forget this one too. And I hate those sites that tell you whatever you made up is too weak and won't let you use it. I mean, it's a blog...not a case of national security! Just accept my weak attempt and let me in already!
Worse yet are the sites that require a combination of upper and lower case and at least one number. Seriously people! Oh, and the new password cannot be something you've used before ever...in your lifetime. There are only so many clever one word ideas I can have. I'm running out of ideas here!
At work, for some reason, our networks asks us to change our password more frequently that some people change their minds. It's maddening. I almost see it as a challenge when I get the pop up that says "You have 14 days before your password expires. Do you want to change it now?" I let it go to the final hour. I hate that pop up.
Now I do understand the benefits of keeping my personal information secure so I'm not eschewing the idea altogether. I'm just saying that for me, a perpetual password forgetter, it gets rather tedious to keep changing them all the time. If I could come up with a method of remembering I might not complain so much. But until then, I'll rely on my security questions and as long as I recall my mother's maiden name, where I went to high school and where I want to live when I retire, everything should be okay.
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