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"A pet I often use for passwords" might be a mistake.
Whenever a web site requires a favorite pet's name, town I was born in,
first-grade teacher, etc., I always make up a unique answer for just
that web site, and I store it along with the password. I try not to let
passwords have *anything* in common with each other - heck, they're
already sharing my user name!
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Stockman
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 10:55 AM
To: TECHWR-L Writing
Subject: Re: OT: LinkedIn Hacked
A method I use to remember passwords is to store obscure password hints
in plain text, and keep that file wherever it's convenient (Evernote is
my cloud service of choice). The hints should be something you can
figure out but that are unlikely in the extreme for anyone else.
For example, my LinkedIn password hint is "snackfood,pet1", meaning that
the password is my favorite junk food at the time, with a comma, a pet I
often use for passwords, and the number 1 at the end. (To be fair,
LinkedIn isn't on my list of vital services to protect with two separate
keys and some launch codes. It's just a social networking service. So
some of my reminders are more complex.)
The benefit of this is that a file full of mnemonic devices is useless
to anyone else, but it's never failed to give me the password I need
after months or years away from an account.
For what it's worth.
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