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Ask HN: What's your password strategy

4 points by shadesandcolour ↗ HN
I like to rotate my passwords, and I like to have a strategy to do so. I don't use the same password for every website but I like to use a derivation of a master password. I personally would love to be able to use randomly generated strings from 1Password, but the issue is portability. Currently, if I do that, anytime I want to log on anywhere at school or another public computer, I have to log in to dropbox(provided that I can remember that password) and use the 1Password Anywhere feature which just isnt feasable. So here's what I do: pick two numbers, either randomly or meaningful, or pick a longer number and split it in half. Take two words that you'll be able to remember. Add the first two letters of the website for that password on to the end of the two words. Bookend this string with the two numbers and finish it all off with a special character.

Do you have any better suggestions for me?

4 comments

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b0o
I have a single password that I use to sign into a bunch of sites that don't require any real information about me associated to my throwaway/spam email acct, that I wouldn't care if it got hacked.

I also have my important passwords for which I use a combination of letters, numbers and special characters which consists of my base password. I then add another string to the end such as a word or zip code, which I rotate every 2-3 weeks depending on where I login and whether or not I feel that connection is secure.

Haven't gotten hacked, yet... we'll see.

msellout
The problem of logging in at public computers will decrease after you leave school. I am content with 1Password.
waxjar
I use a master password for all the services I like to login to in to remotely (google, facebook, dropbox, etc), for the rest of the services I use 1Password. It's not the most secure, but it's the practical imo. If I happen to get hacked, I only have to change the passwords for the few services I login to remotely.
Pyrodogg
I use LastPass. I have absolutely no knowledge of what my passwords even are for 90%+ of the services I use. A few daily-use ones i've just struggled through memorizing the generated passwords. Mostly though I use the Chrome extension that contains all my passwords.