Everyman's Guide to Password Management

Dear Doctor Thomas

I have been unnerved by the recent case of a gang of hackers recording the passwords of people who access their bank accounts online from public computers such as internet cafes.

One solution is to change your password frequently.Because it will probably take them a while to go to all the computers and check the keylogging software.

Problem is, I can't remember all the fuckin passwords I have at the moment anyway.

Ben D., NSW


Dear Ben

Here is a practical way to remember all your passwords.

Your password should have two components: a "service component" that relates to the particular service being opened (eg Banking, Email, Newsgroups, customer loyalty websites), and a "security component" that changes regularly.

For example, in October, your security component might be "Alpine35", so you would open your National Australia bank account with "NABAlpine35", your email with "OutlookAlpine35" and your newsgroup with "AltSexBestialityAlpine35".

In November, you might change your security component to "Frankenstein12", so you would open your National Australia bank account with "NABFrankenstein12", your email with "OutlookFrankenstein12" and your newsgroup with "AltSexBestialityFrankenstein12". You can even make your service component easier to remember by, for example, using some standard rule based on the website address that you are accessing. For example, you might make the service component for the NAB with web address http://www.national.com.au/ to be "wlmu" (last letter of each component of the address" or "national". Or you might make the service component for the bulletin magazine at http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au to be "nnmu" or "bulletin"For all my low security applications (eg newsgroups, customer loyalty websites), I just have the one password "password".

(Put that on your blog Markus - we should start a website that trades useful tips on "how to", perhaps as part of a "normative wikipedia" project...)

Doctor Thomas