I don’t trust technology. Why would I anyway? I still remember the days when people could communicate comfortably without needing to remember a ton of passwords. But things have changed, and having passwords makes you more vulnerable to breaches.
Did you know, for instance, that the average person must remember at least 100 passwords? Ultimately, when you think about it, we all use emails, planners, productivity apps, shopping apps, social media, fitness and health apps, collaborative tools, and many many more. So, at the end of the day, it makes sense why we may be using 100 passwords at any given time.
According to NordPass researchers, this is a problem because the more passwords we need, the least secure they tend to be:
“We now partly understand why people use easy-to-guess passwords — they simply have too many to remember. So, it’s hardly surprising that people use either very simple passwords or have a few and reuse them for all accounts”
If this sounds familiar, this article might give you some food for thought about creating and managing secure passwords in an era where technology advancements can be both overwhelming and empowering. Techno fear has become, unfortunately, a common answer to its fast evolution pace. Yet, it is time for us to learn and recognize that technology can also be an ally in our quest for better password security.
Embracing secure password practices
Technology moves fast, but it never moves silently. It always shares newtools and knowledge. The question you need to ask yourself is: Have I been paying attention?
Creating passwords that are meaningful to you is the best and easiest way to remember them. Yet, beware of obvious and simple passwords, such as the name of a loved one or a date of birth. If you are not au fait of the latest recommendations for generating passwords that are memorable and also hard to crack, it can be a good idea to turn to Ai. While artificial intelligence, and ChatGPT, can make us feel uneasy, there is one thing it excels at. It can extract pre-existing knowledge and summarize it in an easily digestible format. For instance, you could ask ChatGPT for tips on how to create a suitable password. Bear in mind, the tool cannot generate a password for you. But it can certainly help you implement password best practices.
Storing your passwords somewhere safe
The idea that you shouldn’t write your password anywhere is inaccurate. Many people have been told that writing passwords down could increase security breaches. In reality, hackers are far less likely to go through your physical possessions as they are to enter your digital sphere.
Nevertheless, there is still a risk remaining. That’s why you want to use smart notebooks for your passwords, such as Shieldfolio, which has been designed specifically for crypto passwords. This could be a great tip to store your passwords in a physical location.
There are also tech alternatives for password storage and management. Indeed, tools such as LastPass can provide a great solution to keep all your passwords in one place online. Similarly, if you are an Apple user, you are probably familiar with the iCloud Keychain, which can keep your passwords and other information secure and updated across all your Apple devices. This idea is to create a secure vault that will hold all your passwords, and therefore also remember them for you.
This is where technology can make things a lot easier for general password holding. While you want separate storing options for crypto activities (as your SEED password, for example, needs to be kept separately), most passwords can be safely stored in a digital vault. That being said, each digital vault, regardless of the tool you are using, will require some protected authentication mechanism for access. In other words, you will still need to remember one password, the one that gets you into the vault.
The advantage of password managers
Password managers can make it not only easier to remember those infamous 100 passwords, but they also serve another important purpose. Many password managers are able to generate random and secure passwords for you.
Apple users on Safari have probably seen this feature before. When using Safari on an Apple device, users can receive a strong password suggestion.
Alternatively, LastPass and similar password management tools also have a generator function. Typically, the strong password consists of:
A long string of characters (much longer than typical human-generated passwords)
A combination of numbers, letters, and symbols
The inclusion of randomized capital letters
These passwords are much harder to crack. They are also tricky to write down if you wish to keep them on paper. That’s precisely where technology can help you. It can create and remember secure passwords for you. Is it entirely safe? Technically, the first password, the one giving you access to your vault, is likely to be the only weakness as it is human-generated.
So what do you think? Will technology solve once and for all the challenges of digital passwords?