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How to invent a password
Thread poster: Oliver Walter
Brian Young
Brian Young  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 02:40
Danish to English
keychain Aug 14, 2010

This is a little application that is part of the Mac operating software. I have it on my Macbook. I store all of my various passwords and other related info in the keychain. I get automatically logged in to most sites, though some don't allow that. My Mac can only be opened with a password, so I really only need to remember that one password. The Mac has two levels of protection, and if it is password protected at the firmware level, it is impossible to hack into.
The keychain contains inf
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This is a little application that is part of the Mac operating software. I have it on my Macbook. I store all of my various passwords and other related info in the keychain. I get automatically logged in to most sites, though some don't allow that. My Mac can only be opened with a password, so I really only need to remember that one password. The Mac has two levels of protection, and if it is password protected at the firmware level, it is impossible to hack into.
The keychain contains information for those sites that do not allow automatic log on, but it is easy to find if I need it.
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Oliver Walter
Oliver Walter  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:40
German to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Banks: not only a password Aug 14, 2010

Neil Coffey wrote:
That said, I think criminals will tend to be more bothered about doing this for your Swiss bank account than your ProZ account...

There's no point in their trying to do that unless (a) I have a Swiss bank account, and (b) I have online access to it.
But, more seriously: I have seen the login procedure for several UK banks, and they tend to be like this:
  1. Your username is an 8-digit account number or a form of your date of birth plus a sequence number.
  2. To log in you need to know more than one of the following: a password, a 4-digit PIN (Personal Identification Number), a memorable name or fact, a memorable date.
  3. The login process asks you for a randomly selected 3 or 4 characters from your password, 2 or 3 randomly chosen digits from your PIN and a randomly selected one of the names, facts or date.

This will provide some protection against "keyloggers" that could be present on your own computer if your malware security is not good enough, or on a computer that you might use in an Internet cafe - I guess some of them may contain keyloggers.

Oliver


 
Jessica Noyes
Jessica Noyes  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:40
Member
Spanish to English
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"Pass phrase" -- easy to remember Aug 14, 2010

Oliver Walter wrote:
Another common method you consider is to think of not a password but a pass *phrase*, and then make your password consist of the first (or second/last) letter of each word in the phrase.


Yes, the beauty of a "pass phrase" is that you pick an inspirational, wry, or funny quote, and the quote itself is easy to remember. The advantage is that you don't need to write it down and take it with you if you're traveling. I like your idea of using the second letters, but I use the first, turn some of the letters into numbers, and punctuate. Thus: "Line of least resistance, lead me on," becomes L0lrlm0! (those are zeros, not o's).


 
Oliver Walter
Oliver Walter  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:40
German to English
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TOPIC STARTER
Misquoted! Aug 14, 2010

Jessica, you've misquoted! Those words were Neil's, not mine!

Oliver


 
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How to invent a password






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