Comments on: How To: Make Important Online Accounts Unbreachable

By: Things To Know When Using a WiFi Hotspot Or a Public PC | MakeUseOf.com

Things To Know When Using a WiFi Hotspot Or a Public PC | MakeUseOf.com — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:30:54 +0000

[...] While you are at it make sure your online accounts have good passwords as well. [...]

By: Kevin Berry

Kevin Berry — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:04:32 +0000

I find Passpack.com to be a highly secure and user friendly solution. It has a built in password generator, your data is available anywhere you have internet, and it’s secure as well. Passpack not only requires a standard user name and password, but takes it to the next level by requiring you to enter a unique encryption key. I used Passpack to upload all my saved Firefox password data, and then went through all the websites where I was using the same easily breakable password. I changed them to new secure passwords that even I can’t remember. That’s what Passpack is for, it remembers all your password for you. When you don’t have to remember your passwords yourself, there’s no need to use the same one twice. Passpack claims that even they can’t access your stored data or restore your account if you lose the encryption key, so make sure to keep a hard copy of it! I changed my Firefox home page to Passpack and now the first thing I do is open up my passwords.

Check it out:
Link text

By: Aibek

Aibek — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:55:21 +0000

Thanks for sharing.

By: Yonoz

Yonoz — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:48:41 +0000

You can also use KeePass (Windows) or KeePassX (Linux).
Apart from generating and storing passwords, it offers AES and Twofish encryption that you can unlock with a password and/or a file on removable media, and has plugins for things like form-filling. There’s also a portable version, which I use for accessing things at work, and a pocket-pc/Windows Mobile version, all GPL.
keepass.info
portableapps.com/apps/utilities/keepass_portable
keepasssd.sourceforge.net

By: links for 2007-10-16

links for 2007-10-16 — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:21:46 +0000

[...] How To: Make Important Online Accounts Unbreachable | MakeUseOf.com anyone that knows anything about you will easily be able to figure out your password. [...]

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:33:49 +0000

Changing passwords weekly is completely unnecessary. I’ve seen many recommendations of 1 month or 6 months. Here’s Microsoft’s recommendation:

A password that is shorter than 8 characters should be considered only good for a week or so, while a password that is 14 characters or longer (and follows the other rules outlined above) can be good for several years.

By: Doug

Doug — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:59:03 +0000

I always use a pattern on the keyboard. Or a combination of patterns. For instance:

e4r5t67u8i9o

You might have to type it out to see the pattern Then to use a different password on every site, root the patter on something about the site. For instance the password to yahoo might be y7u8i90p-[=], google might be gyhujiolp;[’.

I use different patterns for different scopes as well. One pattern for home, one for temporary internet sites that I don’t care about, one for secure internet sites, one for work, etc.

It’s a simple system that is virtually unbreakable. My passwords at work were always the last to be cracked by the sysads, they had to resort to brute force. It’s a lot easier that they purely random password, and I don’t have to rely on some other program to remember my passwords for me.

Doug