Passwords for Every Account Online!
The growing number of online activities have many pluses for me. It is absolutely fabulous to be able to do things online anywhere, and anytime. During the day, I do all of my day work, and things that I can do online, I save it for nigh time. The new life seems to suit me well. I feel very productive when I planned my activities wisely. Yet, one thing that always takes me beyond grief and frustration is the growing number of accounts and passwords.
I've mentioned my dilemma of keeping up with all my passwords securely in this post: Keypass Password Keeper FREE
More Pain to Protect Passwords!
Needless to say, since then, I stopped using that technique and application. It was too much pain. To use the application, I had to remember the 27-character password in order to open up all the passwords inside. Even though that step seemed logical because you would want to protect what is inside, yet there is more hoops to jump through before you get to the good. The next step is having to load the application on all the machines (locations) where you will need to access your passwords! Or you can either carry the application in a flash drive, or store it online. But again, more passwords to get to passwords.
Believe me, the degree of pain hasn't changed much in terms of protecting and remembering passwords. I don't have a great solution yet. My old fashioned way seemed to work well still. I keep them all on an excel sheet, and divide them into categories. Then I keep the file password protected.
Additional Security Measures to Protect Passwords
But that is not what I really wanted to write about today, smiles. One of the pains that comes with passwords is security questions. You are supposed to remember these too, incase you don't remember your password! OMG, some of them are so stupid. I am not saying they are stupid in the intelligence way, but more because they are so general and yet so specific that I honestly don't have answers for them...answers that I can remember anyways. And stupid that it is another step to get you closer to your account, yet all it does for me is lock me out! So what do you do with these questions? Write them down and write down the answers too? Another security password related spreadsheet to protect? UGGGHH
Stupid Security Questions to Passwords
Let me give you a few examples of the questions I had to answer just today to set-up an account... 1- Who is your least favorite movie star? See, for me this is stupid. If they are my least favorite, then I would really want to block them out of my mind and not have to think about them every time I have to sign in to my lovely account. Furthermore, my least favorite changes from time to time because my opinion become more harsh and callous as I get older. Joking, but this is somewhat true. Less patience with things that are so obviously bad.
2- What is the location of where you were married? Another problematic one for me. What if one never got married? Should we pick this one and pretend that the meeting place is where the wedding took place? But can I remember that the next time I had to fill-in this info? What if I was married once before? Should I put in that answer instead? What if I don't even remember where it was officially? Which answer would I likely to remember most?
3- What is your childhood nickname? I don't have one, should I make one up? Security questions are just stupid, you know? Oh, some people would say, but they give you more than one to choose. Let me tell you, I don't want to write them all down in this post, but basically, they were mostly not related to me. Like this one: What was your dream job as a child?What if the answer is more than two words? Should I put a space in between each one? Should I capitalized all the first letters of each word? You can see where this will be a problem the next time you log in, can't you? Some questions are just bound to get me locked-out of my account instead of getting in. Meaning, there are too many possible answers. And time is precious as there are many accounts and things to do.
Here are Self Sagacity's Thursday Two Questions #140:
1) What was the stupidest security question you have ever encounter?
2) How do you keep up with the security questions and answers to your password?
7 Comments
Oh those are really stupid ones, indeed! I have come across some too, but can't remember at the moment.
ReplyDeleteI keep my security questions to something easy, personal and one that I can remember.
hahaha, yes they are hilarious sometimes. How can i retrieve my password when often i also forget those "stupid" questions, it happened a few times for me already.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember the stupidest question, but sometimes cannot remember how I answered them. Say the question is where I attended school - what if I answer Addison, Addison Community High School or AHS? This is my problem so I have saved a notepad which I named "security". All my vitals are saved there and placed on a jump drive. It's difficult when you have multiple places you sign into and then also have the same thing at work. Our job requires routine changing of multiple passwords for security. It drives me nuts, but is necessary.
ReplyDeleteAmanda, I hate when I have to change my password periodically because I forget which site has which one.
I dislike answering the question what is your mom's madien name etc..
ReplyDeleteI have an excel file for all the passwords and use an algorithm
Those dreaded security questions - what about your maternal (or paternal) grandmother's maiden name? Or your maid of honor's name (there goes that quandry if you're unmarried or have been married more than once...LOL)? Or your childhood best friend's name - what if my childhood best friend is still my best friend? That's not very secure...LOL Great questions! Thanks for the link-up! Have a great week!!!
ReplyDeleteI can't think of any off of the top of my head that were out and out stupid, but I did recently have to create FIVE of them for an account. That was annoying.
ReplyDeleteI don't keep track of my changes. I hate the ones that make you change it to a special character, big letter, etc. word. I always end up having to ask to get the password reset because I forget. That's annoying too.
Not griping too much though because like you noted, the security is important.
Another reason I can't remember most passwords
ReplyDelete1) What was the stupidest security question you have ever encounter?
What was your last street you lived on in so and so year.
2) How do you keep up with the security questions and answers to your password?
I don't. I just request another one.
Have a thought? Please leave a comment here, and I will return as soon as possible. Thanks - If you have a minute, why not check-out the sibbling of Self Sagacity.com Blogger Broadcast. Extra Links = Spam = Delete.