Password Security and the Browser Master Password
Ten years ago, if you were browsing the web, you might have had just one password to store for your email address. Nowadays however, it’s not uncommon to have 10 or 20 passwords for countless online services you’ve joined. And what happens? A good many individuals are inclined to use the same password again and again. Some individuals may not think their Facebook photo gallery as being majorly vital, but it is if you’re using the same password for that as you are for your Google Checkout account. Of course, the ease of having to remember just a single password is compelling, but what happens if someone gets hold of that one password? You guessed it, they in theory have access to all of your accounts that share that very same password. And if you think they can’t know what other services you’ve signed up to, they don’t need to. They run programs which examine thousands of services and try to match your username/password pairing that they already have.
This is a problem we all have to think about, but it is rather easily solved. The truth is, you don’t need to remember each and every account name/password. Let your browser do it. Be it your Yahoo Login or Email password. Just ask your web browser to remember each account name/password, and then setup a central password (”master password”) just in case an intruder gets hold of your computer. If they do have such access, they will have to enter the master password in order to login to any of your services. So in effect, you can sign up to dozens of web services, and just need to remember one password : your master password for your web browser.
In terms of thinking of passwords themselves, make them long and random, for example 8JJJfrfrt65K which is a variety of lower and upper case characters and numbers. Since it’s not required to remember them yourself, be as random as you like. Whatever you do, don’t use dictionary phrases as a password, as these are simple to discover for hackers.