Friday joke (Mar. 1): the ideal computer password

Why is

MickeyMinnieHueyDeweyLouieDonaldGoofyPlutoTallahassee6cymbal

the ideal computer password?

Because it has at least eight characters, a capital, a number, and a typographic symbol!

Couples therapist to husband: Your wife says you never buy her flowers.

Husband: I didn’t even know she sold flowers.

Mumbo -

Thanks for sharing, that system sounds like a winner!

Mumbo,
I finally relented because I got tired of my phone periodically yelling at me for duplicate passwords, similar passwords, and weak passwords. It was giving me a slouch complex.

My "system" has been the use of the back page of spiral notebooks, which are stiff and durable. I have 4 of them full of usernames, passwords, and codes. Of course, over time some information changes so a lot of lines are scratched out, and also trying to match up stuff scribbled in the boarders. Can't forget to cross off the old passwords or I end up getting locked out for too many login attempts. I imagine the black book thing may be similar.

Thanks for the heads up. I think it could be worth the fee and I'll look into it.

A scammer just called saying he had all of my passwords.

I replied, Thank You!! I need to get a pen. Hang on a minute

Prato - Just depends on your level of paranoia and lifestyle as well as what you do on your devices. If you go to bars at night or are entering passcodes on the subway, you may be at greater risk for someone getting your passcode and stealing your phone which will make your life quite unpleasant within an hour. Keep in mind that if someone gets your passcode and iPhone, they will also get the 2 factor authentication codes as well via text or email. Oh yeah, you can get robbed and forced to give your passcode.

I have 1Password on my iPhone, iPad, and iMac which all have biometric readers and my wife is set up the same way. Keep in mind that all devices allow you to used a passcode to bypass the biometrics so back to a "number" being a most important security item. I had to disabled every other method of saving passwords that could be used if someone got into my devices. If someone takes my device, I can do everything from another device or my wife's devices to track the phone or change account passwords, etc. Redundancy is good.

Am I paranoid?, yes and no. I try to understand all things about security and do what I can that is reasonable but there is a place to stop when the benefit gets small. Everyone with PCa could have surgery followed my RT and ADT and be pretty sure that their recurrence risk was low but most would not tolerate that. On the other hand, most would not ignore the issue either so each situation requires its own solution.

I do know that it is a lot easier to misplace things as I get older so being able to track devices is helpful. I actually hooked up Apple tags to our car key FOB's so we can find them. Saves a lot of time knowing the FOB is in the house and not in a gym locker. A FOB going through the laundry is not good either.

BTW, I would definitely suggest getting rid of password lists in Notes and trusting a password manager like 1Password. It is a little like a sticky note on your computer with the passwords on it. Make them work to wreck your life...