In essence, I now use a alphanumeric non-Dictionary phrase, e.g. Qwerty11, as the root. Then sites requiring password cause new characters, e.g. a password for Digg might be Dqwerty11g, though with specific letters capitalized and lowercased.

I keep a different format for my email address passwords and personal finance passwords.

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I think you’re leaving yourself wide open to all kinds of ID theft problems should your laptop ever be stolen. Even if you’ve encrypted that Notepad file (you have, haven’t you) and you’re using a Firefox master password, I think it would be a trivial matter to crack both unless you’ve got something very strong in place.

I’d not recommend keeping an electronic copy of a password list on your premises at all. Do an encrypted unlabeled backup and store it offsite.

And, definitely choose a different password for each SM site. If just one of those sites were broken into and all passwords laid bare, I think the chances of the thief trying all the password combos on other sites is quite high.

In one scene, Dark Helmet incredulously exclaims that only an idiot would use the combination, 12345, on his suitcase lock; and by the next scene, we learn that President Skroob uses that very sequence on his luggage.

If Hollywood can make us laugh about it, it’s no wonder that real people use similarly inane words for their computer passwords.

This brings up a tangent, though: I frequent many websites, each requiring a password. I keep a Notepad file on my laptop in a personal folder that lists every user/pass combination, along with what email address (if applicable) is linked to that username (in case my password is wrong).

I also use Firefox, which remembers passwords. Usually.

I use a different password for each email address, bank account, etc. But for many sites (social media, for instance), the password is the same. Should it be different?

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