How do you manage your online passwords?

Internet, Personal finance

Now that so many financial transactions are online and electronic, do you ever worry about managing your account passwords? I was browsing Fatwallet Finance the other day and came across a thread on just this subject.

Several software applications were recommended (KeePass, Roboform, and Any Password seem to be the most popular), and then a member named KGZotU suggested the following:

One thing you might find useful is a password scheme, so you can figure out any web password just from the name of the site you’re on. You might start with a secure random passphrase that has at least one each of a capital letter, lower case letter, and a number. Then take the first letter of the site and bump it up by two letters, then insert it into the third position in your passphrase. Then take the third letter of the site and bump it down by one and insert it into the fifth position of your passphrase. For example, I’m signing on to FatWallet. My secure passphrase is u8lnBt. From ‘FatWallet’, f -> h and t -> s, so my password for FatWallet is u8hlsnBt.

Might take some getting used to, but his solution seemed like a straightforward idea in lieu of buying or installing software. Personally, I memorize and use several nonsensical passwords, each unique, on each online account I have that has the potential to access money, and they aren’t written down anywhere. (I do try to minimize account proliferation though.)

Anyone have other methods they use?

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4 Feedbacks on "How do you manage your online passwords?"

Paul in 02144

I have about six to eight passwords total, all of them strong, shared across 35 websites or so. The more sensitive the website (bank/brokerage account, primary email), the more likely the website has a unique password which is not shared.

I store my websites/passwords in a text file on my hard drive, and encrypt the file using open-source encryption. On Windows, I use AxCrypt. On Mac, I use the unix command ccrypt.

I also use these open-source encryption programs to encrypt any file on my hard drive which contains sensitive information, such as social security numbers, bank account numbers, PDF copies of tax returns, etc. If one of my backups or my computer is compromised, those files are encrypted with a very strong password, allowing me time to modify account numbers, etc.

The identity theft which as effected me is simple mail fraud (stealing of a phone bill out of my box and buying a phone card with that info) and credit card fraud (someone somewhere wrote down my numbers). Additionally, I rarely write checks, as those clearly state my accnt number and ABA, giving someone easy access for direct withdrawal.



Golbguru

Yodlee takes care of all my financial transaction passwords…or others I use a system similar to yours for remembering: using the name of the website itself with a common phrase, makes them unique and strong.
Haven’t written them anywhere too. I have observed that if you use passwords often you remember them very easily (even if they are totally unrelated and not bound to the website name)



Anyone

I still use IE. There is free app for it http://www.formautofiller.com
I like the tool. Very easy to use.



Jack

Roboform is not a freeware anymore,
Now I am using Cute Password Manager,
very easy to use.
http://www.cutepasswordmanager.com