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Tech Talk Thursday: Revisit Your Passwords

In the wake of the security breach experienced last week by the online productivity service Evernote (a service that we at Simply Placed adore, by the way), I thought it would be a good time to revisit those passwords that we use for online and cloud-based services. While Evernote claims that there is no evidence that the hackers accessed any of the payment information or user content that it stores, it’s still a reminder to all of us that no system is ever completely closed to attack.
Because most of us can’t remember multiple passwords, we tend to use the same one or variations on a theme over and over again. If you do this, you run the risk of giving away the keys to your kingdom! As a best practice, it’s good vary your passwords rather than use the same one for everything, and it’s ideal to use a complicated string of numbers and letters versus a dictionary word or a simple string like “12345.” If you are creating a unique string for each service, this can add up to a lot of weird passwords.

There are a few approaches to managing the process, ranging from low-tech (pen and paper) to high-tech (databases that sync to the cloud). Here are two that I like:

1) Keep a running list as either a Word or Excel document that contains the name of the account, your login and password information. Then, put a password on THAT document so that you only have to remember one master password to access all of them.

2) Another option is to use password manager software like 1Password, LastPass, or KeePass. We’ve written about KeePass before – this free download, open source software allows you to store all of your passwords in one database. You can then set one master password that unlocks the database, and use the database to access your accounts. KeePass also has a random password generator that can help you create strong passwords, since ultimately the best password is one that you can’t remember. Just make sure you don’t forget your master password!

Have another password manager that you like? Tell us!

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