Password update

[Moses Yoder]

I had been using one password, a pet name plus a date, for everything for some time. Ease of use, etc. The talk about passwords recently got me thinking and I decided to throw Norton in the trash based on the opinions here and installed Last Pass. I changed all my passwords, using the same password for Facebook and three forums then using different ones for my credit union, PayPal, and Ebay. Besides the Last Pass vault I wrote all my passwords on a spreadsheet saved to a flash drive for back up. I changed the password on my computer to something that would be very hard to crack but I can remember it with word association. Now I can just about feel it; I will soon get hacked.

Does your wife have the password to your computer? Just wondering. Mine does not, just because it is none of her business. Kind of like she would feel violated if she caught me going through her purse.

[David Weaver]

My wife has 100% access to my computer, and I to hers. She has read my emails before when I've been dumb enough to leave them up, and caught me buying stuff. Other than that, I don't have anything she can't read or see - I just tell her not to read my order emails because I don't feel like getting grief both when I order them AND when they show up in the mail.

I recognize that not getting upset about my wife reading my emails is probably not the norm, but she is my wife, and not my roommate. A friend of mine has secure profiles on their house PC - his wife has zero access to his login and she has zero access to his. He takes that very seriously.

I write my passwords in a paper notebook.

[Myk Rian]

Now I can just about feel it; I will soon get hacked.
Do you have ulcers? Are you normally a worry wart?
Frankly, you've been putting way too much worry into all of this. Your hair must be gray already.
Good God man. Settle down.


Does your wife have the password to your computer? Just wondering. Mine does not, just because it is none of her business. Kind of like she would feel violated if she caught me going through her purse.
Hell yes my Wife has the password, because we don't use one.
I trust my Wife. She trusts me. Trust makes a marriage last.
47 years and going great.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

My wife not only has a password for our computer, she has had a complete power of attorney since early 1971 when I was in the US Navy.


But then again....I met her on a blind date.....3 days later I asked her to marry me.....8 days later I signed over my checking and savings accounts......2 days after I got home from boot camp, we were married....in 1968. I think it's going to last.

[Jim Koepke]

My wife knows most of my passwords.

Anything I don't want her to know about is erased from history.

I am kind of sneaky though. This morning she had to go into town. So before she got in the car I burned a new CD for her that has a bunch of songs that usually cause her to tear up. It was put into the car CD player with out her knowing. I did tell the granddaughters. They were going into town with her.

She told me when she got home it was a good thing she already was in the parking lot when "When You Wish Upon A Star" with the voice of Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio.

But back to passwords, she has most of hers written down on a piece of paper that is kept under the keyboard.

Most of mine are a variation of the same two or three that I use.

New rules on passwords want symbols, upper case and lower case letters plus some numbers thrown in.

One easy way to come up with a new password is to take the first letter from each word of a favorite speech or literary passage. Throw in a few numbers and then use the shift key on some of them. Make them 10 or more characters long and hope super computers don't fall into the hands of super hackers.

jtk

[Mike Cozad]

My wife has full access to the computer. She could if she wanted get into my email. However she cant figure out how. She chooses to be a technological dinosaur, and then torture me when something doesnt work the way she expects, or doesn't know how. She has a smart phone, but only because it was less expensive than a basic phone (I already have a huge data plan so we pay no extra for her phone on the data plan...) She even has a tablet, but she only reads library books and Amazon books, etc on it. All her choice. Now if she wanted to hack me and read stuff, more power to her, I'm pretty boring. No skeletons here....

[Gary Yoder]

My wife has complete access to me and my stuff. This is a marriage, and when we got married, I gave everything about me to her. I don't WANT to hide anything.

[Pat Barry]

I have a text file on the desktop of her laptop (which I use all the time since I'm too cheap to buy my own) and that test file has all my passwords and account info for her. I wanted to make sure she had complete visibility in case I get hit by a bus or struck by lightning or have another heart attack. I used to have a file on the old computer that had a lot more info like all the account numbers and beneficiary info etc but that old computer died and I haven't recovered the file off it yet

[Andrew Pitonyak]

The general rule (I am told) is that you use the same (or similar) passwords for "low value" things such as forums and general web sites. Use different passwords for high value sites (such as each bank gets a different password) so that if one is compromised, the others are not.

If you write down your passwords and I break into your house and find that paper, then I can compromise all of your accounts. Now, I doubt if someone will target your house to find your passwords, and, it seems doubtful that your local burglar who desires to sell your stolen TV will have interest in trying to compromise your bank accounts (requires a totally different skill set without being caught), but... You are probably better off either using a dedicated program that holds passwords that may be available on both your computer and a smart phone. If you store it in a document on your computer, at least password protect the document using a decent password.

Finally, consider encrypting your hard drive. The primary advantage for this is that if the drive fails, you can send it back under warranty without worrying about anyone accessing your damaged data. On the other hand, it does make it more difficult to recover data from a lost drive.

[Dan Hintz]

I have a text file on the desktop of her laptop (which I use all the time since I'm too cheap to buy my own) and that test file has all my passwords and account info for her. I wanted to make sure she had complete visibility in case I get hit by a bus or struck by lightning or have another heart attack. I used to have a file on the old computer that had a lot more info like all the account numbers and beneficiary info etc but that old computer died and I haven't recovered the file off it yet

I would highly suggest you print this text file out, store it in a file cabinet, and then delete that file. Should anyone gain access to that laptop (directly or remotely), you have just given them access to your entire life (particularly financial access).

[Pat Barry]

I would highly suggest you print this text file out, store it in a file cabinet, and then delete that file. Should anyone gain access to that laptop (directly or remotely), you have just given them access to your entire life (particularly financial access).
Thanks. You are right. It isn't the most secure place for that stuff

[Jim Rimmer]

New rules on passwords want symbols, upper case and lower case letters plus some numbers thrown in.

One easy way to come up with a new password is to take the first letter from each word of a favorite speech or literary passage. Throw in a few numbers and then use the shift key on some of them. Make them 10 or more characters long and hope super computers don't fall into the hands of super hackers.jtk

IT Tech was checking PCs at office. (Hair color of your choice) woman gave him her password. It was MickeyMinnieGoofyDonaldDaisyHueyDeweyLouieAustin. When asked why it was so long, she replied, "DUH! It has to be 8 characters and at least one capital." :D

[ray hampton]

IT Tech was checking PCs at office. (Hair color of your choice) woman gave him her password. It was MickeyMinnieGoofyDonaldDaisyHueyDeweyLouieAustin. When asked why it was so long, she replied, "DUH! It has to be 8 characters and at least one capital." :D

she would be better to choose the capital of Arizona

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

But then again....I met her on a blind date.....3 days later I asked her to marry me.....8 days later I signed over my checking and savings accounts......2 days after I got home from boot camp, we were married....in 1968. I think it's going to last.

There you go again Ken. Rushing to conclusions. Best to think about it for another 20 years and let us know how it's lasting. ;)


My better half and I have full access to each other's computers and passwords, but we stay off of each other's computers unless we need to use them for something our own laptops can't do. (My ThinkPad laptop has XP while my LOML's is a Mac.)

[Malcolm Schweizer]

IT Tech was checking PCs at office. (Hair color of your choice) woman gave him her password. It was MickeyMinnieGoofyDonaldDaisyHueyDeweyLouieAustin. When asked why it was so long, she replied, "DUH! It has to be 8 characters and at least one capital." :D

I had an employee that could not get the system to accept his new password. I asked if he had an upper and lower case letter. He said he did. I had him try again, and didn't see him use the shift key, so I asked again if he was using an upper and lower case letter. He again said he was, so I said, "Do you know the difference between upper and lower case?" He said, "Yes- this row (points to top row of letters on keyboard) is upper case, and this one (points to bottom row) is lower case." I guess the others are "middle case!"

[Jim Rimmer]

I had an employee that could not get the system to accept his new password. I asked if he had an upper and lower case letter. He said he did. I had him try again, and didn't see him use the shift key, so I asked again if he was using an upper and lower case letter. He again said he was, so I said, "Do you know the difference between upper and lower case?" He said, "Yes- this row (points to top row of letters on keyboard) is upper case, and this one (points to bottom row) is lower case." I guess the others are "middle case!"


You're telling this from a personal experience viewpoint so I have to believe it but, man, that one i hard to swallow. Never underestimate the stupidity of average people, I guess.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

You're telling this from a personal experience viewpoint so I have to believe it but, man, that one i hard to swallow. Never underestimate the stupidity of average people, I guess.

I look at it a different way. Having been a computer tech for over 20 years and solving bizarre problems on a daily basis, the one thing I quickly learned is that we all have different skill sets. I couldn't expect a mechanic (who never used a computer at home or at work) to know how to move a mouse around a screen and open programs just the same as he couldn't expect me to know how to change a transmission in the allotted time he did it. I watched a librarian burst into tears because she was overwhelmed with learning a new software program and feeling "stupid", yet she carried a knitting bag during her breaks and created amazing, intricate, doily-like patterns for beds, tables, etc. that very few of us could accomplish.

I've kept this comic at my desk for over 20 years now.