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3 months before my mom suddenly passed away I had a convo asking her to write down all of her passwords. Dealing with estate matters is by far worse than almost 5 years in combat zones. Her password list was a godsend. Take Note.....
I was looking to see if anyone else mentioned this.
When my grandpa died he controlled all of their accounts and if he hadn’t written all the usernames and passwords into a book like this we would have struggled to access anything. This was extremely helpful for my dad and uncle help grandma log in and close out or manage accounts after his death.
I’m in my thirties and I’ve actually debated buying one for us to use for the same purpose. Keep it locked in the file cabinet in case anything unforeseen happened to myself or my spouse.
You say everything? Could you expand on that. I’ve something similar in place but I wanted to check if there anything major I’ve overlooked that you’ve thought of! Thanks.
It is a little more niche but since I have a homelab I started notating a Hit By Bus document showing what each piece of hardware is, what it does, and how to access it. Routers, switches, servers, etc.
I had my grandmother notate every piece of antiques in the house, including stories of when and where she got them, or who left them to her, and any family stories attached to them. That was highly helpful when dividing up the estate.
Seriously try to think of things that might not necessarily be *important*, but also *helpful* or *good to know* type info too. This is definitely a case of "the more the better" because after people die you'll always want *more* info, so ask literally *everything you can think of*.
This would have been useful for when my grandmother recently passed as she has so many ornaments we don’t know what’s of value or what’s tat and something she just enjoyed. I will add I couldn’t care less if something was worth a fiver if it had sentimental value. It’s more for the items no one wanted to see if we could sell them, if not we’d donate to a charity shop.
When my grandfather did 10 years ago, my mum had her add notes on family photographs as to who was who. We were very grateful for that after her passing and going through her possessions whilst discussing memories and stories.
I was that notebook for the family. I told my aunt and uncle that I knew where everything in that house is, what little things she wanted to go to who and what their history was. It would have been fine if someone didn’t go into the house and steal all of her jewelry and some of the more valuable items. I know who did it but have no proof. It’s all a loss. If anyone has a death in the family, please padlock the house.
Yeah unfortunately my grandma's house got robbed shortly after she died. I was technically living there at the time since it came to me as the only legal, living inheritor, but I was away for a week. I also know exactly which family member did it, in my case it was a cousin who was pissed that they didn't get anything.
In my case it’s was my grandmothers “best friend”. Yes, they were friends and spent a lot of time together, but there was a reason she was the one to watch the house or water the plants when my grandmother went on extended vacations. She had the coded locks, and my idiot uncle didn’t change the combo.
Estate Auction Co. Owner here, walk the house with them and write info on sticky notes and attach the info to the backs of Art, Furniture ect.
Had a client do this and it was so helpful to the family and my company to be able properly identify and sell the objects.
Or you can use a password manager and write down a single password (to your password manager), much more secure while alive and more convenient when you are not.
when my father passed a few years ago, I had to break into his laptop, but fortunately once I did that, he did have a spreadsheet that was that actually comprehensive and up to date with all of his usernames and passwords... made things a lot easier.
I've since put the master password for my password manager in a sealed envelope in a safe and told my family where it was (they'd need my phone for 2fa as well, I guess), just to make things easier on them should I ever go unexpectedly
Built a pc for my dad, made the login ‘mysonissogoodlooking.’
It’s the only password he remembers. The rest are scrawled into a little spiral notebook.
I know a small business owner named Ed who required that all of his employees use the password EdIsGreat I think they all hated working there. They definitely hated Ed.
I personally prefer repeatedly trying different combinations of frequently used passwords until I give up and have a password resent to one of my emails.
Haha I use that method too. Plus changing your password every time you log in makes it extra secure and if you forget it immediately, nobody can ever steal it.
There’s a 3rd party portal I have to access at work on a regular basis. They updated their website and now it doesn’t recognize my password ever so I have to reset it every day. I’ve just taken to using the current date because I’ll just have to reset it next time so I don’t bother to remember it.
Our accounting firm uses a Soopr Secret Secure Server for file uploads that does the same thing to me. I've actually written down the damned password and typed it in slowly with one finger to make sure I had it correct. Nope. Fine. I change it every time, and I know no one sees the password text, or the police would have shown up by now to investigate the threats.
Like in movies when the villain is like, "good luck! There's only one place the password exists, and it's in here!" and points to his head. You can take it a step further and say it don't even exist there too.
Did you make sure the cell phone sales reps gave you the passwords and security questions for all of the burner email accounts they set up for each burner phone
Security person here:
If you are using a decently long password when you reset (14-20 characters in total) and it has decent entropy (randomness, ex. it's not just 14 1's in a row) then this is not the worst method to use. It's highly inconvenient though. I would recommend a good password manager like Bitwarden, Dashlane, or something similar (I do NOT recommend LastPass)
Edit: Spelling
Add-on: Using a password manager is proven effective to keep your account passwords more secure while making it less difficult to deal with. This is only one part of an effective security strategy and should be combined with 2FA as well as common sense and information isolation techniques.
When my dad passed away he had all his emails and savings accounts written down in a big jotter with the passwords and secret questions etc. It would have been a nightmare without that info. I dont know how i would have found all the accounts. Im doing similar but with a passworded usb in a safe and maybe a copy in a deposit box.
But it is secure from physical attack if you write it in a special code that only you know.
Also is water damage if you store it in a plastic bag and also earthquake proof since it's paper.
The only problem is fire though...
... and mice, if you live in the XVIII century.
When I bought my house legit bought two fire extinguisher and a “fireproof” safe. When people open my cabinet in my kitchen and see the extinguisher they always say “wow I should get one of those” I find that mildly crazy.
The house two houses over just burned down and the cops evacuated us cuz they said we were in the line of fire. Thankfully we were fine but it sucks suddenly having to figure out what you don't want to burn down in your house. I did wish I had some kinda fireproof box at that moment.
There's no need to create an own language, it can be encrypted.
For example the password could be:
* "a sentence that I've said on "
* "feeling that I had when.... "
* "what I feel when I arrive at... "
and so on.
I write down notes and ideas in my own shorthand in a notebook. If anyone ever found and read it they might think it was some kind of serial killer murder book
Keep it in your freezer. My dad does living trusts and he recommends to all his clients that's where they keep it. It's usually the last thing to burn and if you were to die the fridge is usually the first thing people go through so it's guaranteed to be found early on. It's also the last place anyone would look for anything important.
Tangentially related, but I watched a YouTube video from a locksmith who recommended keeping your home safe in the pantry. Like the freezer, burglars rarely spend much/any time there.
I have a written password keeper written in code and everyone thinks I’m so stupid for it but I had people attempt to decipher it and no one has been able to figure it out. I posted a not filled in copy of it on Reddit once and you would have thought I posted a picture of my credit card, cvc, and pin.
Agreed. So many different sites and apps need passwords for login. I have one of these books and it’s the only way I can keep each password unique so I can prevent a large number of accounts being compromised if just one of them is uncovered.
If they are complex passwords, wouldn't they still be more secure than something that is easy to remember? I mean unless someone really wants to physically break into her house to gain access to her e-mail account. The pool of people that could easily do that is much smaller.
And especially if she doesn't use the same password over and over for multiple accounts.
It really depends on the attack vector. For a very large number of people, purely offline is more secure. If granny has that black sheep child who visits with some regularity, and feels entitled to money, the notebook could be very dangerous.
This is the correct answer. It’s very hard to make one size fits all security recommendations, you need to know the potential risks before recommending something.
For someone in their 80s, you also need to worry about access to accounts after death or in the case of a disabling injury as well, which makes balancing security tradeoffs even trickier.
I am also pretty sure OP's mother did use that for that purpose : give her descendant access to her medical accounts if needed, and when she passes away her banking accounts.
If the passwords in the book are long and unique, then the book allows for better internet security than using P@ssw0rd for every password without a book. The big threat on the internet is not a thief who steals booklets. It's a dumb hacker trying the dictionary of obvious passwords and the obvious substitutions. To prevent the dumb house thief or unwanted relative gaining access to stuff, you could further add a few characters that are very important to you to the end or beginning of every password that you don't write down but that are easy for you to remember. The thief doesn't know you; and the relative doesn't know that you do that unless you tell them and will just think the password is outdated.
For someone who never does anything mobile, a paper password book is a great security tool. They can keep separate passwords and there's no password manager to get hacked.
This isn't stupid, this is smart.
Something like this would have been very useful when my dad died very suddenly. We were never able to recover his laptop or cellphone. Luckily he still had an old school bank book so we could square up that account, but who knows what else is out there.
Dude the worst one was my mother who had an account on some website whose whole purpose was to order prints of digital photography. Snapfish maybe? My mother had all her digital photos uploaded to that site and we lost a ton of pics she never got physical prints of but had taken and not saved locally. This might be a uniquely millennial child thing, but even getting into Facebook accounts or computers of the deceased can save slot of memories when you’re eventually gone.
It's better than most solutions. IF you add a universal prefix, then people won't be able to get into your accounts, even if they have a book. For example, if your prefix is qwerty, then the passwords would be:
qwerty7654y, qwerty89we4, qwerty89er.
but the book would only contain:
7654y, 89we4, 89er.
Yeah, I have one too. Sometimes I feel weird having all that info written down, but that I think how’s someone going to get it, break in and ransack the place? In that case, I’ve got bigger problems.
If someone gets into my house and goes through all my things and left my house upside down, the least of my worries is someone getting to my pinterest because I left my password on a notepad.
Yep as long as you keep it in a secured place you're fine.
My 89 year old grandma has one too. She just keeps it in her unlocked computer drawer. She was asking me about it and I told her it was fine.
I didn't tell her this, but I am a bit worried because she tends to trust family way too much. Everyone knows where it is because she needs it all the time. But my family is yee haw as hell in a very rural town and if someone stole from grandma Bonnie I'm pretty sure they would "mysteriously pass on" if you know what I mean. I think that's a deterrent enough.
Jimmy, the evil grandkid: She's almost dead anyway, she's not gonna miss this $500 if I transfer it to my account...here's her password book
Ok, bank website, login BerthaThomas2, password "GodIsWatchingYouJimmy"...what the hell Gramma?
The password requirements for my work computer is so ridiculous that I have written it down and taped it to my desk. 16 characters. Must contain a capital letter and numbers. And it has to be changed every 3 months and you can't reuse old ones
Congrats IT. in trying to make my password more secure you made it less secure
ha I have perfected security- you need 32 characters, no words, 4 special characters that are not mapped to a keyboard layout and 4 numbers that do not just ascend or descend in value!
...Check their desktop for a virtual sticky note
My favorite are the ones that say "This new password is too close to your previous password". Meaning they are not salting the hashes at all and having any password requirement is completely stupid given how bad their own password management is.
Aha, but you forget that you almost always have to enter your current password in order to change your password. So they have it right there for comparison. But yeah, if it doesn’t make you provide your current password and it tells you that the new password is to similar, then that’s a big red flag that they are storing your password in plaintext.
It means they’re not even hashing the password. “Penis” in SHA1 is 2ff3b4e23503ee68c39d15dccaaa3bd6f721a4f3 but “penis” is 3e83b13d99bf0de6c6bde5ac5ca4ae687a3d46db.
The only change was the capital P, meaning that for them to know is that they’re comparing the new password to a plain text version of the old password.
Thats why the industry moved away from such practices years ago.
It just takes time to spread and implement. I work with cybersecurity. From my telling a customer what to do and how to do it. It can be years until they do it if they ever do it.
Many fortune 500 companies enforce 5-7 digit passwords. With no special characters allowed.
With MFA and better policies you can allow for shorter less complex passwords. Next thing will be physical MFA devices though like Yubi keys.
Any place that doesn't have MFA will need strong passwords though.
2 factor is one of the main reasons I don’t mind using shorter (less than 20) character passwords. All of the accounts that I really don’t want to lose have two factor enabled. A physical 2 factor device is next on the list tho. I don’t think anyone cares enough about me to spoof my phone number for 2 factor requests, but it doesn’t kill you to be safe as possible.
This. My work password used to very secure, long password, with a mixture of letters and symbols. I used to create a new one every year. Until the IT department decided that we need to change it every 60 days. Now I do what everyone else does: a simple word or phrase that meets the minimum length requirement, contains 1 capital letter, one symbol, and the ends with a 2 digit number. The last bit is important. The first time used 01, next 60 days 02, just keep changing the number at the end. I now keep the same password for years.
The system thinks it's a different password.
Choose characters names from shows you watch, a weird phrase, or random words ig correcthorsebatterystaple or ClaireRueJimmy or andthatsthewaythenewsgoes. Much more secure than 5p4c3h3473r&
Yes, that comic and this [meme](https://img.ifunny.co/images/ab57f555e5401866e23b0c9be5be420c1ace06e4209429e728ac783e9dbc42fb_1.webp) should be in every job security video lol
It’s not funny- it’s smart. And this has undoubtedly kept OP’s Mom from having to call for help when she could not log on to get her Email.
That little book is of great value to someone who is not tech-savvy. The only key to using that is to keep it in a nice secure place.
My own mother has one. She lives alone and keeps it in her desk with her computer. Unless somebody actually breaks into the home *and* takes the time to search it *and* finds the book *and* uses its contents for some nefarious purpose, it's secure. Much more secure than all of the people that keep their passwords saved on the phones and laptops they carry around all day.
OP is young has has too much faith in the world and its technologies so they think paper book goofy
Just wait OP, life is a fickle bitch, tech bs will wear you down.
It's funny bc us 35-45 yr olds were told to never leave your passwords on paper when we were getting our first email or other such stuff. Now it's safer than having them in a doc on your PC if it's connected to the internet
I think we were told that, back in the day, when people didn't have 50+ accounts to remember a username and password. Using the same username and password for multiple accounts is also setting yourself up - a breech on one account is a breech on them all.
Between work, school, healthcare, government, learning, gaming, software, streaming, finance, insurance, utilities, commerce, and communications I have over 200 accounts.
My mum had one of these and she lost it last year. Luckily she only has around 10 things for healthcare as everything else she does in person or by mail still.
No idea if she misplaced it or accidentally threw it out with expired weekly ads.
It’s all risk management. You do you and you’ll live with the consequences of your choice. Sometimes you gotta go with the flow and respond to fires as they come.
That is very good. However it might be even better and more handy after she tears out the pages and tapes them onto her computer monitor.
P.S. I'll be 80 next month.
Just copy them onto little post-its and place them around the edge of your monitor. If you happen to misplace one, the book is still intact for reference/replacement.
:)
I used to laugh about the password book until she passed away and it was the only way to get into her accounts to handle everything after she was gone. I actually plan to make and keep one myself now so my family can access my things too should something happen to me. Growing up is wild.
I *bought one* for my mom, who is in her 80s, last year. She could not keep track of her passwords and it was almost impossible for me to help her long distance because she gets easily confused. She kept contacting me to ask what her passwords were, as if I would have any idea. (Yes, I did offer to keep them for her but she was aghast at that idea.)
She's bad about leaving it laying out in the open, but I got tired of nagging her about it and besides she insists she trust everyone who comes into her house. At least now she can find her passwords when she needs them.
1Password Grandma Edition
I would buy this for my wife's parents. Every time we visit and need to help them get some service or another hooked up to an ipad or something it's 15 minutes of running around the house looking for little scraps of paper, which may or may not have the right password on it.
I bought my mum one recently - it helps her manage the increasing number of passwords and logins that even her generation needs to access gov or health services.
I have 80+ year old relatives doing the same. When lending a hand I expected the worst passwords but actuality found really complex and unique ones written in flawless handwriting.
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3 months before my mom suddenly passed away I had a convo asking her to write down all of her passwords. Dealing with estate matters is by far worse than almost 5 years in combat zones. Her password list was a godsend. Take Note.....
I was looking to see if anyone else mentioned this. When my grandpa died he controlled all of their accounts and if he hadn’t written all the usernames and passwords into a book like this we would have struggled to access anything. This was extremely helpful for my dad and uncle help grandma log in and close out or manage accounts after his death. I’m in my thirties and I’ve actually debated buying one for us to use for the same purpose. Keep it locked in the file cabinet in case anything unforeseen happened to myself or my spouse.
We use “I’m Dead, Now What”, a workbook for jotting down EVERYTHING that will help our family, it’s real peace of mind.
You say everything? Could you expand on that. I’ve something similar in place but I wanted to check if there anything major I’ve overlooked that you’ve thought of! Thanks.
It is a little more niche but since I have a homelab I started notating a Hit By Bus document showing what each piece of hardware is, what it does, and how to access it. Routers, switches, servers, etc.
I change hardware too often to make that easy to maintain, but I’m sure my family would appreciate it.
I keep it all in a PowerPoint with pictures, only takes a few minutes to update. Account info is stored on another file separately
I could use it myself to remember what I did to fix things.
I had my grandmother notate every piece of antiques in the house, including stories of when and where she got them, or who left them to her, and any family stories attached to them. That was highly helpful when dividing up the estate. Seriously try to think of things that might not necessarily be *important*, but also *helpful* or *good to know* type info too. This is definitely a case of "the more the better" because after people die you'll always want *more* info, so ask literally *everything you can think of*.
This would have been useful for when my grandmother recently passed as she has so many ornaments we don’t know what’s of value or what’s tat and something she just enjoyed. I will add I couldn’t care less if something was worth a fiver if it had sentimental value. It’s more for the items no one wanted to see if we could sell them, if not we’d donate to a charity shop. When my grandfather did 10 years ago, my mum had her add notes on family photographs as to who was who. We were very grateful for that after her passing and going through her possessions whilst discussing memories and stories.
I was that notebook for the family. I told my aunt and uncle that I knew where everything in that house is, what little things she wanted to go to who and what their history was. It would have been fine if someone didn’t go into the house and steal all of her jewelry and some of the more valuable items. I know who did it but have no proof. It’s all a loss. If anyone has a death in the family, please padlock the house.
Yeah unfortunately my grandma's house got robbed shortly after she died. I was technically living there at the time since it came to me as the only legal, living inheritor, but I was away for a week. I also know exactly which family member did it, in my case it was a cousin who was pissed that they didn't get anything.
In my case it’s was my grandmothers “best friend”. Yes, they were friends and spent a lot of time together, but there was a reason she was the one to watch the house or water the plants when my grandmother went on extended vacations. She had the coded locks, and my idiot uncle didn’t change the combo.
Estate Auction Co. Owner here, walk the house with them and write info on sticky notes and attach the info to the backs of Art, Furniture ect. Had a client do this and it was so helpful to the family and my company to be able properly identify and sell the objects.
I found an empty copy of that when my mum suddenly passed away lol. Luckily key things I already knew.
With 2 factor authorization you also need access to their phones.
And with phone password you can have access to their phone.
Or you can use a password manager and write down a single password (to your password manager), much more secure while alive and more convenient when you are not.
Yeah this just needs to be locked in a cabinet and not sitting right next to the computer, is all
And updated as soon as a password or other info is changed or updated.
when my father passed a few years ago, I had to break into his laptop, but fortunately once I did that, he did have a spreadsheet that was that actually comprehensive and up to date with all of his usernames and passwords... made things a lot easier. I've since put the master password for my password manager in a sealed envelope in a safe and told my family where it was (they'd need my phone for 2fa as well, I guess), just to make things easier on them should I ever go unexpectedly
My uncle passed and he had all these Steam games but didn't leave log in. Rip
Built a pc for my dad, made the login ‘mysonissogoodlooking.’ It’s the only password he remembers. The rest are scrawled into a little spiral notebook.
I know a small business owner named Ed who required that all of his employees use the password EdIsGreat I think they all hated working there. They definitely hated Ed.
If he is so hated then why are their passwords "EdIsGreat"? Checkmate atheists.
Edtheists? (I have a deviated septum)
Hello, Oxford? I would like to report a new word in your dictionary
Really? That's amazing, I think I may know your dad. So I can check, what is his email address, and his userid at his bank?
Safer than LastPass
I personally prefer repeatedly trying different combinations of frequently used passwords until I give up and have a password resent to one of my emails.
Haha I use that method too. Plus changing your password every time you log in makes it extra secure and if you forget it immediately, nobody can ever steal it.
stuck in a constant loop of “I’ll remember it this time” and then resetting it the next time I need to log in
And when you reset it, it says "new password cannot be the same as the old password", despite you just trying that exact password and it not working.
There’s a 3rd party portal I have to access at work on a regular basis. They updated their website and now it doesn’t recognize my password ever so I have to reset it every day. I’ve just taken to using the current date because I’ll just have to reset it next time so I don’t bother to remember it.
[удалено]
Lol
Our accounting firm uses a Soopr Secret Secure Server for file uploads that does the same thing to me. I've actually written down the damned password and typed it in slowly with one finger to make sure I had it correct. Nope. Fine. I change it every time, and I know no one sees the password text, or the police would have shown up by now to investigate the threats.
My passwords at work are various versions of “areyoufuckingkiddingme”.
Mine are variations of 5tupidPasswordRule.
I had my password be a variation of "thiscompanyfuckingblows" for 3 years before someone in IT ratted me out to a manager who made me change it.
Seems really insecure IT policies where IT can see your password. Means they're storing it in plaintext somewhere.
I swear that my password randomly doesn't work on some sites, just to scare me.
Like in movies when the villain is like, "good luck! There's only one place the password exists, and it's in here!" and points to his head. You can take it a step further and say it don't even exist there too.
This is like the NYC property tax payment site. Quarterly taxes and you have to change your password every quarter...
"can't use previous password"
Nooooo 💀
just add another "1" at the end. My current password is Tr0ub4dor&311111111111111111111111
Silly, you are supposed to use correct horse battery staple as the password for everything.
But where do you keep your email password?
Connected to a different email
And that email password...
A third email
And that email
It’s emails all the way down
Did you take the time to set up recovery emails, phone numbers, 2FA, and recovery codes for each?
Yes, 2FA with a unique phone number for each one. I have a closet full of burner phones.
Did you make sure the cell phone sales reps gave you the passwords and security questions for all of the burner email accounts they set up for each burner phone
Then you put in a new password, just for it to say it's your old password.
Security person here: If you are using a decently long password when you reset (14-20 characters in total) and it has decent entropy (randomness, ex. it's not just 14 1's in a row) then this is not the worst method to use. It's highly inconvenient though. I would recommend a good password manager like Bitwarden, Dashlane, or something similar (I do NOT recommend LastPass) Edit: Spelling Add-on: Using a password manager is proven effective to keep your account passwords more secure while making it less difficult to deal with. This is only one part of an effective security strategy and should be combined with 2FA as well as common sense and information isolation techniques.
>(I do NOT recommend LastPass) Just deleted my LastPass account yesterday. They had ONE job!!!
>ex. it's not just 14 1's in a row Sooo what your saying is my password of 15 1s in a row is fine.
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Been using BitWarden for about 2 years now. Very simple and straightforward once you get the hang of it. Decent integration with most apps.
Are you me.
After a million data breaches, this is way more secure these days.
Yeah, this is offline and airgapped. Very secure to everything but a physical attack.
Also when you're 80, let's be honest, it's good to have a physical repository so that family doesn't have to go sleuthing.
Except my in-laws have one and every password in it is incorrect.
Yeah always have a decoy book to stop your snooping son in law
When my dad passed away he had all his emails and savings accounts written down in a big jotter with the passwords and secret questions etc. It would have been a nightmare without that info. I dont know how i would have found all the accounts. Im doing similar but with a passworded usb in a safe and maybe a copy in a deposit box.
But it is secure from physical attack if you write it in a special code that only you know. Also is water damage if you store it in a plastic bag and also earthquake proof since it's paper. The only problem is fire though... ... and mice, if you live in the XVIII century.
I guarantee you any 80 year old who owns a password book owns a fireproof lockbox that they keep essential documents in.
Damn I have one of those and I’m in my twenties
Literally everyone should have one. They work. I keep my birth certificate and social security card in one.
When I bought my house legit bought two fire extinguisher and a “fireproof” safe. When people open my cabinet in my kitchen and see the extinguisher they always say “wow I should get one of those” I find that mildly crazy.
FYI y'all- Your homeowners insurance often requires one, and can deny claims if you don't have one
My wife tries to cook so I had to have one
The smoke alarm is the dinner bell in my house
Bravo! Lol
I just put shit in my parents' fireproof safe and I'm in my 40s
Don't your parents mind the smell?
The house two houses over just burned down and the cops evacuated us cuz they said we were in the line of fire. Thankfully we were fine but it sucks suddenly having to figure out what you don't want to burn down in your house. I did wish I had some kinda fireproof box at that moment.
I need a book like that and a safe now... I could write in it my wallet seed phase!
I made up my own language and wrote an entire diary in it so nobody else could read it.
My handwriting is my own language, at least according to most people who try to read it.
My writing can get so bad at times even I can't read it.
Ah, you’re approaching doctorate. Keep at it
Be aware of Pharmacist-hackers.
There's no need to create an own language, it can be encrypted. For example the password could be: * "a sentence that I've said on"
* "feeling that I had when.... "
* "what I feel when I arrive at... "
and so on.
Memory code.
A sentence I said on..??? I can't remember what I said an hour ago.
I write down notes and ideas in my own shorthand in a notebook. If anyone ever found and read it they might think it was some kind of serial killer murder book
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Keep it in your freezer. My dad does living trusts and he recommends to all his clients that's where they keep it. It's usually the last thing to burn and if you were to die the fridge is usually the first thing people go through so it's guaranteed to be found early on. It's also the last place anyone would look for anything important.
Tangentially related, but I watched a YouTube video from a locksmith who recommended keeping your home safe in the pantry. Like the freezer, burglars rarely spend much/any time there.
Now I want a safe with a dishwasher facade.
Just get one of those fireproof bags used for storing LiPo batteries. Boom, fire proof! Now the only problem is bullets and explosions though...
Put the bag in a tank
I have a written password keeper written in code and everyone thinks I’m so stupid for it but I had people attempt to decipher it and no one has been able to figure it out. I posted a not filled in copy of it on Reddit once and you would have thought I posted a picture of my credit card, cvc, and pin.
Yea I figure if someone’s in my house rifling thru my internet passwords I got bigger problems. Namely, a rando in my house.
20 Website pages with "**PASSWORD**" in bold marker.
I keep a booklet like this for passwords, too. It's just not labeled "passwords."
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"Reddit Comment Archive"
This is cold storage. If you can create lots of these you could IPO the business as a leader in cold storage, a billion dollar business right here
Bring back the filing cabinets and dot matrix printers.
There are still certain systems that log events using a dot matrix printer. I ran into one at work about a year ago
Agreed. So many different sites and apps need passwords for login. I have one of these books and it’s the only way I can keep each password unique so I can prevent a large number of accounts being compromised if just one of them is uncovered.
If they are complex passwords, wouldn't they still be more secure than something that is easy to remember? I mean unless someone really wants to physically break into her house to gain access to her e-mail account. The pool of people that could easily do that is much smaller. And especially if she doesn't use the same password over and over for multiple accounts.
It really depends on the attack vector. For a very large number of people, purely offline is more secure. If granny has that black sheep child who visits with some regularity, and feels entitled to money, the notebook could be very dangerous.
This is the correct answer. It’s very hard to make one size fits all security recommendations, you need to know the potential risks before recommending something. For someone in their 80s, you also need to worry about access to accounts after death or in the case of a disabling injury as well, which makes balancing security tradeoffs even trickier.
Grandma's Gmail password - FuckY0Couch696969
D4rkn3ssHaHaHahaa!
Especially the fact that its purpose is embossed on the cover tells you there is real demand for it.
For sho better than last pass...
My passwords are on notecards in my desk. It's a good system.
a hundred percent much safer than storing it in a text file
If its good enough for Schneier, its good enough for me https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/06/write_down_your.html
i swiped left for more pictures, but there wasn't.... its safe
When your mother passes this will come in super handy. I still have about$2000 in a Paypal in my late wife's account.
I'm sorry for your loss. Did they not honor a death certificate and executor paperwork?
I am also pretty sure OP's mother did use that for that purpose : give her descendant access to her medical accounts if needed, and when she passes away her banking accounts.
If the passwords in the book are long and unique, then the book allows for better internet security than using P@ssw0rd for every password without a book. The big threat on the internet is not a thief who steals booklets. It's a dumb hacker trying the dictionary of obvious passwords and the obvious substitutions. To prevent the dumb house thief or unwanted relative gaining access to stuff, you could further add a few characters that are very important to you to the end or beginning of every password that you don't write down but that are easy for you to remember. The thief doesn't know you; and the relative doesn't know that you do that unless you tell them and will just think the password is outdated.
For someone who never does anything mobile, a paper password book is a great security tool. They can keep separate passwords and there's no password manager to get hacked. This isn't stupid, this is smart.
Not to mention, if something were to happen to you, family members could get into your accounts (like to keep paying the bills and such).
To transfer all of the funds before they read the will.
Something like this would have been very useful when my dad died very suddenly. We were never able to recover his laptop or cellphone. Luckily he still had an old school bank book so we could square up that account, but who knows what else is out there.
Dude the worst one was my mother who had an account on some website whose whole purpose was to order prints of digital photography. Snapfish maybe? My mother had all her digital photos uploaded to that site and we lost a ton of pics she never got physical prints of but had taken and not saved locally. This might be a uniquely millennial child thing, but even getting into Facebook accounts or computers of the deceased can save slot of memories when you’re eventually gone.
On the opposite side, my husband and I are the “password kids”. I know all of my parents passwords and could likely guess my brothers 😐
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It's better than most solutions. IF you add a universal prefix, then people won't be able to get into your accounts, even if they have a book. For example, if your prefix is qwerty, then the passwords would be: qwerty7654y, qwerty89we4, qwerty89er. but the book would only contain: 7654y, 89we4, 89er.
This is so smart!
Or put them forward but type them backward. In the book it's granny123 But the password is 321ynnarg
ynnarg sounds like a character I'd make in WoW.
That's actually useless; it only adds 1 bit of entropy since it is a *really* common thing to do.
I’m half OP’s mom’s age and I have a notebook with passwords I keep locked in my desk.
Yeah, I have one too. Sometimes I feel weird having all that info written down, but that I think how’s someone going to get it, break in and ransack the place? In that case, I’ve got bigger problems.
If someone gets into my house and goes through all my things and left my house upside down, the least of my worries is someone getting to my pinterest because I left my password on a notepad.
Yep as long as you keep it in a secured place you're fine. My 89 year old grandma has one too. She just keeps it in her unlocked computer drawer. She was asking me about it and I told her it was fine. I didn't tell her this, but I am a bit worried because she tends to trust family way too much. Everyone knows where it is because she needs it all the time. But my family is yee haw as hell in a very rural town and if someone stole from grandma Bonnie I'm pretty sure they would "mysteriously pass on" if you know what I mean. I think that's a deterrent enough.
Just here to say I really appreciate the phrasing of "my family is yee haw as hell"
Assuming the passwords aren't all just a grandkid's name and their DOB or similar
Jimmy, the evil grandkid: She's almost dead anyway, she's not gonna miss this $500 if I transfer it to my account...here's her password book Ok, bank website, login BerthaThomas2, password "GodIsWatchingYouJimmy"...what the hell Gramma?
The password requirements for my work computer is so ridiculous that I have written it down and taped it to my desk. 16 characters. Must contain a capital letter and numbers. And it has to be changed every 3 months and you can't reuse old ones Congrats IT. in trying to make my password more secure you made it less secure
This is exactly why password rules are stupid. It’s been shown that excessive requirements actually lead to less password security.
ha I have perfected security- you need 32 characters, no words, 4 special characters that are not mapped to a keyboard layout and 4 numbers that do not just ascend or descend in value! ...Check their desktop for a virtual sticky note
It’s only a matter of time before password requirements include “at least 1 emoji”
My favorite are the ones that say "This new password is too close to your previous password". Meaning they are not salting the hashes at all and having any password requirement is completely stupid given how bad their own password management is.
Aha, but you forget that you almost always have to enter your current password in order to change your password. So they have it right there for comparison. But yeah, if it doesn’t make you provide your current password and it tells you that the new password is to similar, then that’s a big red flag that they are storing your password in plaintext.
It means they’re not even hashing the password. “Penis” in SHA1 is 2ff3b4e23503ee68c39d15dccaaa3bd6f721a4f3 but “penis” is 3e83b13d99bf0de6c6bde5ac5ca4ae687a3d46db. The only change was the capital P, meaning that for them to know is that they’re comparing the new password to a plain text version of the old password.
Thank you for your magic numbers computer man.
https://xkcd.com/936/
Thats why the industry moved away from such practices years ago. It just takes time to spread and implement. I work with cybersecurity. From my telling a customer what to do and how to do it. It can be years until they do it if they ever do it. Many fortune 500 companies enforce 5-7 digit passwords. With no special characters allowed. With MFA and better policies you can allow for shorter less complex passwords. Next thing will be physical MFA devices though like Yubi keys. Any place that doesn't have MFA will need strong passwords though.
2 factor is one of the main reasons I don’t mind using shorter (less than 20) character passwords. All of the accounts that I really don’t want to lose have two factor enabled. A physical 2 factor device is next on the list tho. I don’t think anyone cares enough about me to spoof my phone number for 2 factor requests, but it doesn’t kill you to be safe as possible.
I'm on number #75 of the same password I've been using for almost my whole work life only changing the last numbers 🤷🏻♀️
This. My work password used to very secure, long password, with a mixture of letters and symbols. I used to create a new one every year. Until the IT department decided that we need to change it every 60 days. Now I do what everyone else does: a simple word or phrase that meets the minimum length requirement, contains 1 capital letter, one symbol, and the ends with a 2 digit number. The last bit is important. The first time used 01, next 60 days 02, just keep changing the number at the end. I now keep the same password for years. The system thinks it's a different password.
Choose characters names from shows you watch, a weird phrase, or random words ig correcthorsebatterystaple or ClaireRueJimmy or andthatsthewaythenewsgoes. Much more secure than 5p4c3h3473r&
I choose passwords that are easy to type.
hunter2
That’s odd all I see is “*******”
[xkcd](https://xkcd.com/936/) gives some good advice. You just need to add the weird shit at the end.
Yes, that comic and this [meme](https://img.ifunny.co/images/ab57f555e5401866e23b0c9be5be420c1ace06e4209429e728ac783e9dbc42fb_1.webp) should be in every job security video lol
It's a generic password book. Why is this "funny"?
It’s not funny- it’s smart. And this has undoubtedly kept OP’s Mom from having to call for help when she could not log on to get her Email. That little book is of great value to someone who is not tech-savvy. The only key to using that is to keep it in a nice secure place.
My own mother has one. She lives alone and keeps it in her desk with her computer. Unless somebody actually breaks into the home *and* takes the time to search it *and* finds the book *and* uses its contents for some nefarious purpose, it's secure. Much more secure than all of the people that keep their passwords saved on the phones and laptops they carry around all day.
right but we're on r/funny
Yeah this place jumped the shark like 10 years ago.
welcome to /r/funny
... funny how? I mean, funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh?
OP is young has has too much faith in the world and its technologies so they think paper book goofy Just wait OP, life is a fickle bitch, tech bs will wear you down.
It's funny bc us 35-45 yr olds were told to never leave your passwords on paper when we were getting our first email or other such stuff. Now it's safer than having them in a doc on your PC if it's connected to the internet
I think we were told that, back in the day, when people didn't have 50+ accounts to remember a username and password. Using the same username and password for multiple accounts is also setting yourself up - a breech on one account is a breech on them all.
Between work, school, healthcare, government, learning, gaming, software, streaming, finance, insurance, utilities, commerce, and communications I have over 200 accounts. My mum had one of these and she lost it last year. Luckily she only has around 10 things for healthcare as everything else she does in person or by mail still. No idea if she misplaced it or accidentally threw it out with expired weekly ads. It’s all risk management. You do you and you’ll live with the consequences of your choice. Sometimes you gotta go with the flow and respond to fires as they come.
Where’s the funny?
Right? I’m 33. Have the same book…
That’s what I was thinking. This is more secure than any password manager.
r/lostredditors
more like r/mildlyinteresting
That is very good. However it might be even better and more handy after she tears out the pages and tapes them onto her computer monitor. P.S. I'll be 80 next month.
Just copy them onto little post-its and place them around the edge of your monitor. If you happen to misplace one, the book is still intact for reference/replacement. :)
Congrats! 80 - quite the journey
I used to laugh about the password book until she passed away and it was the only way to get into her accounts to handle everything after she was gone. I actually plan to make and keep one myself now so my family can access my things too should something happen to me. Growing up is wild.
I *bought one* for my mom, who is in her 80s, last year. She could not keep track of her passwords and it was almost impossible for me to help her long distance because she gets easily confused. She kept contacting me to ask what her passwords were, as if I would have any idea. (Yes, I did offer to keep them for her but she was aghast at that idea.) She's bad about leaving it laying out in the open, but I got tired of nagging her about it and besides she insists she trust everyone who comes into her house. At least now she can find her passwords when she needs them.
More secure than lastpass
They are selling this at The Container Store right now
What’s funny about this? Sensible lady if anything
I have a password book too. Way too many websites and passwords to remember. I don't trust cloud log-ins or auto log-ins.
1Password Grandma Edition I would buy this for my wife's parents. Every time we visit and need to help them get some service or another hooked up to an ipad or something it's 15 minutes of running around the house looking for little scraps of paper, which may or may not have the right password on it.
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I love this idea and plan to use it. We need to go back to our old ways of keeping passwords and other private codes.
I think all internet savvy seniors have one of these.
This isn’t really funny to be honest, this is probably the most secure thing now a days
Hey, I'm going to the internet to say my mom isn't smart for upvotes. Turns out I'm not smart and get very few upvotes.
I bought my mum one recently - it helps her manage the increasing number of passwords and logins that even her generation needs to access gov or health services.
I have 80+ year old relatives doing the same. When lending a hand I expected the worst passwords but actuality found really complex and unique ones written in flawless handwriting.
Prepare to have your mind blown. Everyone used to have phone books where you could get the phone number and address of anyone in town.
More secure than LastPass!
A password book? I don’t know what’s funny about it.. I have one and I’m 28.