Once every 3-4 months, I’ll change all of my passwords. You won’t believe how passionate I am about security and since working in IT for a few years, I learned the value of a secure password.
I keep an Adobe PDF that’s password protected with a master password. This PDF is updated every 4 months as I cycle through and change all passwords. At this time, it’s 4 pages long and contains over 50 password credentials to websites, devices, operating systems and other objects that require credentials to gain access.
If you’re on a PC, Please please please try RoboForm. It has a master password, auto-fill of forms and it even manages multiple identities for each website like I have 15 Twitter logins. Finally, it’s completely portable and the encryption is 128-bit. It’s an excellent piece of software and just talking about it makes me want to go back to Windows. Mac users will 1Password is the same but it’s not because I’ve used both.
I just changed all of mine this week and it took about 1 hour total to do it. Seriously, it’s not very hard to do and if you use SugarSync or Box.net, you can access that PDF from your iPhone if on the go and away from your PC. Don’t memorize your passwords because if, for some reason, you’re captured and held for ransom and the guys want access to your PayPal account, you have deniability that you really and honestly don’t know the password.
Ok, that last scenario was mostly a joke. What do I use for all of my passwords?
I use the PCTools Random Password Generator. The default settings are fine but on financial websites, I up that to 12 characters. These randomly generated passwords are hard to remember but fine if you store them in that PDF.
So get serious about security and change your passwords often!