A reader has a question about password storage options.
“I don’t use any password storage service such as Bitwarden. I have all of them in an alphabetical booklet totaling some 100 to 150 different passwords. I keep it near my computer, which I know is not smart. Any suggestions for password storage, other than a “cloud vault” ? ( I am old, and technically challenged)”
Honestly, if you have your passwords written down in a booklet that you keep at home, it’s really not a bad idea at all. Now, I wouldn’t suggest doing that in a book you take to work or outside the house. I’d also suggest duplicating that book and perhaps storing a copy in your safe deposit box.
An advantage to cloud storage is that you don’t lose all of your passwords if there’s a natural disaster at your house. There’s one low-tech option for password storage that I like:
PasswordCard offers a free, simple solution that leaves you a hard copy of your passwords.
The credit card -sized card fits easily in your wallet or purse.
When you arrive at http://www.passwordcard.org/en, you’ll see that it’s a pretty simple set-up.
A card number is generated for you. Make sure to save that card number somewhere. You can use it to regenerate the card if you ever lose it.
You can choose to have an area with only digits (great if you need PIN numbers) or to include symbols.
Then you can print the card, laminate it and keep it in your wallet. Here’s how it works. You pick a symbol, color, and length for your password. Then choose to go
left or right. For example, if I needed a 10-letter password, I could choose pink for a color and musical note for a symbol. Then I would go 10 to the right for a password of WWyVGGKkCD.
I could write down Pink-Music-Note-10-Right somewhere. Even if someone came across it, without my specific card, they wouldn’t be able to figure out the password. You can also randomly generate a new card at any time.
Kudos for realizing that keeping a notebook full of passwords is a single point of failure – if it’s lost, destroyed or stolen, you would have to start everything over. While the password card is an option, it’s still a piece of paper that must be safeguarded.
My Darling Bride and I have used http://www.LastPass.com for years: it’s an online “vault” in which we can keep all our usernames, passwords, payment cards and other secure items like notes. It can generate, and store, unique and complex passwords for every site and it’s all accessible via a single master password that you create.
As long as you keep your master password secure, all your passwords are safely stored in the cloud and can be accessed from any computer, phone, tablet, etc. We can set up our own vaults, and we also share a common vault for the items we both use.