sheilaincali
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Post by sheilaincali on Mar 17, 2011 8:32:58 GMT -5
I have the bulk of them memorized but the rest are written on the folders for those projects. Example- the log in and password for when I do the quarterly SUTA reports is in the "2011 SUTA" folder. Which is in my locked file cabinet with the rest of the payroll reports. I work for 2 companies simultaneously so I have to log in and out of both companies a dozen times a day. Plus I know the password for a couple of other users who's jobs I do when they are out of the office. The Boss man is forever having me log into his computer when he is away from the office so I know all of his passwords too. Thinking about it they better hope I never go rogue
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spartan7886
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Post by spartan7886 on Mar 17, 2011 8:33:05 GMT -5
Personal passwords I keep in a KeePass file with a 42 character password. That password and a few others are created using the initial technique. For example, if I was on a recipe website, I might remember the phrase "I want my baby back, baby back, baby back ribs" but it becomes "Iwm6br" for a password. Other sites I might pick things that are in plain sight but you don't think of them. One forum I use, the password is the model number for my monitor. Another was the serial code on the back of my apartment gate remote. A third might be a combination of the two techniques - the initials of a quote printed on a pad of paper by the computer.
The 42 character password for KeePass is written down and filed with the birth certificates, ss cards, and other important papers so DH can access my accounts if something happened to me.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2011 8:47:15 GMT -5
We both know each other passwords since we both use the same for all our accounts (yes not safe we know ) But so much easier... it just so happens that I have been doing that forever and same for my wife; before we even met each other. So I know what her password is for everything and same goes for her. Now as for anyone else, no; which might be an issue if we were both to die at the same time
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workpublic
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Post by workpublic on Mar 17, 2011 9:51:38 GMT -5
whats really annoying is when you change one password and the AD doesn't up date it immediately and you can't get access anyway.
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MN-Investor
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Post by MN-Investor on Mar 17, 2011 10:07:40 GMT -5
Irony - the more complex you require the passwords to be, the greater the chance that the users will write the passwords down, a potentially not secure scenario.
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kimber45
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Post by kimber45 on Mar 17, 2011 10:14:04 GMT -5
Most of them are in my head (the financial ones anyways). If something happened to me, DH wouldn't have a clue. My work ones are written down at work, in a locked file drawer. The ones that I use for logging into my wholesalers, etc at home are written next to the computer so DH has access to them.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Mar 17, 2011 11:16:57 GMT -5
They are in my head. I have several passwords I alternate here at work. What annoys me is when I am prompted to change my Windows password, it will accept it, but then LotusNotes will tell me that password isn't complicated enough and I have to make a new one. I had to change my password the week before I went on maternity leave. I am glad I wrote it down because when I got back I couldn't remember the password! You can't just change it either, you have to give hte old password before you can make a new one. If I knew the old one I wouldn't have to be making a new one!
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Sam_2.0
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Post by Sam_2.0 on Mar 17, 2011 12:17:32 GMT -5
Work passwords - for applications I use daily, they are some variation of a password I can remember. I have to change every 45-60-90 days (depending), so I just keep recycling the same ones. Its the same basic word, but I mix up the characters after it in a strange pattern. For things I don't access frequently, I use the sticky-notes in Outlook to hold the passwords. I figure someone has to know my main password to get into my computer to get it, so it has to be safer than using real sticky notes Home - I keep my passwords in an Excel sheet. I don't actually write out the password, but something that makes me think of it easily. For example "Beealy Bub Birthday" would remind me that the password is my dog's name & birthday. The Excel sheet is also password protected with an odd password that only DH and I know. That way, if something ever happens to me, DH could get in & know where to go log in & what passwords to use since I take care of everything. There's a password key software out there that you can use. It stores all of your passwords, so you only have to remember the one to get into the key, and then it will log you into everything else.
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Bob Ross
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Post by Bob Ross on Mar 17, 2011 12:48:01 GMT -5
Like, 1Firebird, 2Firebird, 3Firebird Floor? That would work better for Miss Tequila.
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Mar 17, 2011 13:08:01 GMT -5
So how would one go about encrypting a file?
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Mar 17, 2011 13:32:33 GMT -5
If you write them down, either in a digital file or on paper somewhere, keep that as secure as possible, and try to leave a knowledge break in there somewhere. So for example, you might have a list of logins and passwords, but the file wouldn't say what systems they go to.
If I find a note under your keyboard that says jsmith - $%^RTY456rty, I can be pretty sure it's a login and password but at least I don't know what it goes to. Now granted if I find it under your keyboard nine times out of ten it's going to unlock your workstation, but if it doesn't, I don't know what website or application it goes to, which makes the information less useful.
My system is that I remember all my personal passwords. Shared work passwords are in a password protected file on an encrypted drive that the team has access to, and the password to that file and it's location are NEVER written down. It's the one you have to remember. My personal work passwords are stored in an encrypted file in my home directory on one of our system boxes, not my workstation. So I have to remember at least a few passwords to get to my list. I figure it's a good trade off between security and accessibility.
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wodehouse
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Post by wodehouse on Mar 17, 2011 13:36:22 GMT -5
Firebird, I use freeware software truecrypt (www.truecrypt.org), reviewed at pcmag.com. There is PGP software now owned by Symantec (it's interesting to read the history of PGP) and other commercial software. This stuff takes a bit of learning how to use, although truecrypt is pretty simple.
Or you can buy a USB flash drive with pre-installed encryption software that encrypts the entire drive, any file on the drive is safe as can be (which is quite safe). This might be a simple/easy way to go.
Using files on encrypted drives is pretty much transparent to the user and there is no perceptible increase in read/write times of files.
(By the way, my Excel password file has an auto-open macro to turn off the auto-recover feature. I don't want the file to be saved in some MS Office cache. Although my understanding is that there are still various Windows caches that may still retain file data. Someday I may understand all this and find a way to suppress it; hopefully that's not after all my accounts have been cleaned out.)
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SVT
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Post by SVT on Mar 17, 2011 16:27:55 GMT -5
Not necessarily. It depends on the password. A lot of the passwords I use for financial stuff, I use passwords that would take months to crack with software. I use capital letters, lower case letters, numbers, and special characters and it's around 12 characters long. You can't crack that in 2 minutes. This is the reason that companies that have employees who have access to really confidential data force them to use complex passwords as well as change them every 60 - 90 days. It would take a few months for the password to be cracked, and the password is changed again before the few months is up. You can crack simple passwords in no time though. The need for password complexity depends on the data you are trying to protect, though. In some cases, you may not really need/want a complex password like the kind I described above. It's not how long your password is. It's what kind of encryption you are using. With old Office files, their encryption was very weak. They improved it now with new Office suite. So, if you used older version of office with your super complicated password - 2 minutes. ;D maybe not exactly 120 seconds...but it would be still pretty short. How do you know it would take "months" to crack your password? Did you actually have someone that works with encryption and network security do it? Or is this just something you think it would take that long? I shouldn't really go into details about my credentials as far as where I work, even though this is an anonymous board but I can say I have a 4 year degree in Information Systems Security and a Security+ cert (which really isn't that big of a deal but still). The standard encryption method at my work is AES, and now it's the standard pretty much everywhere. It's near impossible to crack, at least in a reasonable amount of time. There isn't a strong enough computer with enough processing power (yet lol) or enough time to break that type of encryption, especially with a long and complex password such as the one I use. There are also different key lengths, 256 is the strongest. You are definitely right that it depends on the type of encryption but it also depends on the length and complexity of the password. Using the older types of encryption, it would likely take longer than 2 minutes to crack a password such as IH@kjC0df8!. The default encryption used for Office 2007 is AES if I'm not mistaken. For even more security, simply use a long and complex password. I haven't used Office 2003 in forever but IIRC, there were multiple encryption types to choose from, in order by encryption strength. And I'm pretty sure AES was an option. Where I'm getting months for a strong complex password I don't exactly remember. I remember reading about it in college. The reason is because of the number of combinations needed to try to crack the password. Do you know how many combinations are in a password that is 12 characters long, with upper and lower case letters, numbers and at least 1 special character? Even with the weakest encryption methods, it would take more than a couple minutes to crack that password. That's why some companies, depending on the type of data that needs to be protected, require using long and complex passwords, including changing them as little as every 45 days. Of course this discussion depends on different factors. Are we talking about a single home desktop PC or 200 computers testing 100,000 passwords every second? Etc.
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SVT
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Post by SVT on Mar 17, 2011 16:32:24 GMT -5
So how would one go about encrypting a file? Do you want to encrypt your Word document that you created with your passwords in it? If yes, which version do you have?
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Mar 17, 2011 16:36:20 GMT -5
SVT, that would be swell. MS Office Word 2007.
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SVT
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Post by SVT on Mar 17, 2011 16:49:23 GMT -5
Open the document. Click the office button, point to Prepare, click on Encrypt document. Enter a strong password that you will remember. Try to make it at least 8 characters with a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. Office 2007 uses AES 128 bit encryption. It's very stong but just make sure you still use a long and complex password and I'd advise changing it every couple months.
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Mar 17, 2011 16:53:24 GMT -5
Cool, that's it? Seems quite similar to putting a password on it. Is it okay if it's the same as the password I used to protect it?
Thank you!
ETA: Completely OT, but am I the only one who literally feels like 2007 was a year ago at BEST? I still find it hard to believe we're already in 20 freaking 11.
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SVT
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Post by SVT on Mar 17, 2011 17:01:23 GMT -5
Cool, that's it? Seems quite similar to putting a password on it. Is it okay if it's the same as the password I used to protect it? What steps did you take to protect it? Did you have to enter a password to open the document? If yes, it's already encrypted, or "protected". There's only 2 different options to add a password in Microsoft Office documents.
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Mar 17, 2011 17:32:27 GMT -5
Ah, okay. I'd already done that (save as -> tools -> general options -> password to open). I thought that was the password-protection that everyone was saying is really easy to break.
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SVT
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Post by SVT on Mar 17, 2011 17:40:19 GMT -5
You're fine. Your document is encrypted with a presumably strong password using Word 2007's AES encryption. The passwords that are really easy to break are weak passwords such as dictionary words and/or passwords that are only a couple characters in length and that use weak/older encryption methods. Keep the password long and complex (by using special character, numbers, lower and upper case characters, and the longer the better) and change it every so often and you'll be fine.
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azphx1972
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Post by azphx1972 on Mar 17, 2011 18:45:29 GMT -5
I ran across this a while back, and thought it was an intriguing way to manage passwords: www.passwordcard.org/
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blackcard
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Post by blackcard on Mar 17, 2011 19:21:14 GMT -5
On a tiny notepad in my purse. I keep them very easy also. A letter + our wedding date works for me.
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Artemis Windsong
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Mar 17, 2011 20:04:33 GMT -5
Passwords are the root cause of drug and alcohol abuse in some people.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Mar 17, 2011 22:13:10 GMT -5
Passwords are the root cause of drug and alcohol abuse in some people. LOL! I could see it. The day the feds finally make the switch to smart card access for everything I'm throwing a huge party. Slightly off topic, but what is it with data base admins? I mean seriously, those guys couldn't remember a four letter password if three of the letters were their initials. Every single time they have to do maintenance on our systems it starts with a call or email to us to unlock their accounts and reset their passwords.
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Small Biz Owner
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Post by Small Biz Owner on Mar 18, 2011 5:43:24 GMT -5
I keep them in my phone. If I ever lose my phone uh-oh.
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SVT
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Post by SVT on Mar 18, 2011 10:19:47 GMT -5
What kind of phone do you have?
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ysi
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Post by ysi on Mar 20, 2011 22:31:14 GMT -5
Boy, has this thread fed my paranoia. I keep them all in a little notebook in my purse. I never thought about the loss of my purse for whatever reason. Now I am going to have to figure something else out!
How many of you have a coworker you have to remember their password for them?! :-)
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SVT
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Post by SVT on Mar 20, 2011 22:56:07 GMT -5
Boy, has this thread fed my paranoia. I keep them all in a little notebook in my purse. I never thought about the loss of my purse for whatever reason. Now I am going to have to figure something else out! How many of you have a coworker you have to remember their password for them?! :-) That's not a good idea. Just follow the suggestion of encrypting a Word or Excel document with the passwords.
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DVM gone riding
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Post by DVM gone riding on Mar 20, 2011 23:04:20 GMT -5
I have a little book that I write it in but I put the passwords in code, sometimes I get confused but mostly it works. If someone cracked my code I might be screwed but I don't think it would be that easy honestly. I refuse to put them on the computer because even a word doc your computer could get hacked, or crash.
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SVT
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Post by SVT on Mar 20, 2011 23:10:16 GMT -5
I have a little book that I write it in but I put the passwords in code, sometimes I get confused but mostly it works. If someone cracked my code I might be screwed but I don't think it would be that easy honestly. I refuse to put them on the computer because even a word doc your computer could get hacked, or crash. Not very likely for a Word document from Office 2007, 2010, or using AES encryption on 2003, to be hacked into, especially using a strong password. Make it long and a variety of characters, making the amount of combinations for a program to go through higher. Read my previous posts on that. As far as your computer crashing, you should be backing up needed data to an external source regularly.
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