Where do you keep all your passwords?

[taxman]

I currently have usernames and passwords for about 20 different online services ranging from the BBC Food Message Board, Midland Mainline, Ebay, Piccasa, Smile online banking, Virgin Mobile, Friends re-united, etc etc

 

My problem is that although a lot of these have the same usernames/password combination (itself a security lapse) some of them don't.

 

Until now I've written down the usernames and passwords in a little book handily placed next to the computer so that anyone robbing my house could easily clean me out if they so wanted.

 

I had an idea of creating a computer file with all these details then hiding it in a folder somewhere. But then I wondered how I would retrieve the info if my computer broke.

 

Does anyone have any useful tips or suggestions as to where I could store my myriad passwords so as to make them less susceptible to falling into the wrong hands?

 

Thanks

[TESTPASS]

have a theme that you can use to alternate your pw.

 

somthing like dictators where you can swap from adolf hittler one week to muscilini the next. and if you forget the pw you just have to remember what the theme is and go through them all.

 

different suasages, anything that you will be able to have a good guess at if you loose your pw.

putting it on paper is asking for trouble, you get too reliant on it and one day its lost and your up the creek

[Dave650]

I currently have usernames and passwords for about 20 different online services ranging from the BBC Food Message Board, Midland Mainline, Ebay, Piccasa, Smile online banking, Virgin Mobile, Friends re-united, etc etc

 

My problem is that although a lot of these have the same usernames/password combination (itself a security lapse) some of them don't.

 

Until now I've written down the usernames and passwords in a little book handily placed next to the computer so that anyone robbing my house could easily clean me out if they so wanted.

 

I had an idea of creating a computer file with all these details then hiding it in a folder somewhere. But then I wondered how I would retrieve the info if my computer broke.

 

Does anyone have any useful tips or suggestions as to where I could store my myriad passwords so as to make them less susceptible to falling into the wrong hands?

 

Thanks

I have well over 20 and so far they're all in my head. It'll catch me out soon, especially as my mind seems to be deteriorating

[Strix]

Oh tell me about it

 

I have to go through the nonsense of guessing most of them, and waiting half an hour or so after the fifth guess was wrong... again

 

Telephone banking is my favourite - I don't use it, so when I ring with a general enquiry, we have fun.

What's the first and fourth letters of your password? I don't know. I don't know my password, coz I don't use telephone banking

er, I'll have to ask you some security questions. What was the last transaction? Er, I don't know, I don't use the account much

 

I'll let you imagine the rest

 

*wonders if people are really stupid enough to reveal their password secrets*

[max]

You could keep them in an email on an internet mail server mixed up with other emails. One mail could contain the ids and another the passwords, not necessarily in the right order. Then you could access them from anywhere in the world.

[Guest]

...Then you could access them from anywhere in the world.

On a similar note, there are various online central password storage services. Never tried them myself, but might work if you're not too paranoid.

 

The first one that popped up in a Google search gave a secure connection failure error when I tried to load the front page, due to an expired security certificate - that might not bode well .

[Grissom]

Get two trustworthy relatives and give one of them the usernames and the other the passwords. Then when you need the two, give each of them a ring for the username and password.

 

If either relative gets robbed, the robbers only have one half of the info

 

Make sure you only ring them on a landline otherwise you don't know who is listening

[Rivelin6]

You could keep them in an email on an internet mail server mixed up with other emails. One mail could contain the ids and another the passwords, not necessarily in the right order. Then you could access them from anywhere in the world.

Good idea, I also tend to use the same one but with different numbers on the end depending on the year I created the account but often I can't remember when that was so end up guessing. Once that fails I have to create a new ones which makes things even more confusing. Never write them down.

[Minimo]

I have mine written down, but I don`t use on line banking or anything sensitive. Its just ones like this forum, ancestry,amazon and the like, so they wouldn`t do anybody any good. (I hope someone doesn`t come along and tell me I`m wrong)

[Clare85]

Mine are all in my head, and I am constantly getting locked out of everything!