Your Password Security Is Weak Sauce

I know you won't listen to me, because I've tried. But maybe you will listen to Dave Plumber. He retired from Microsoft and started a YouTube channel. He was with Microsoft way back in the dark ages of MS DOS.

He starts the discussion with explaining how long it would take a hacker to break a password of the form "Banana1492!" including the punctuation. Given modern computer hardware - even desktop systems, not fancy servers - it would take one (1) second to break that password.

Clearly the days of just combining your old dog's name with the street address you grew up on is no longer tenable.

I get it. You don't want to have to remember a password for every website, for your email, for your banking, for F*c*book, for Netflix...

With a password manager, I have to remember one password. I won't tell you which one I use, because it isn't suitable for most people (I gave up on Windows and installed Linux on my PC a ways back, for example), but there are choices that are not hard to use.

Dave recommends using the PW manager built into Chrome. I view Google as a problem in itself, so I don't recommend that. (I don't use the Chrome browser for that reason.) 1Password seems to be a viable option that has a lot of features families/couples can use. But it isn't free. Bitwarden claims to be free but doesn't have some features you might want. Like emergency access. Though they do have a step up for $1 per month and families version for a little more. I'm guessing you spend more on coffee - or your breakfast beverage of choice - than these companies want to help you make your life easier, and safer.

It isn't hard to remember one password. Even one password that is complicated. And I can look up all my other PWs on my phone, my computer, on other people's computers, and the rest of my passwords will not be hacked.

For example. The PW for my email is in excess of 25 characters, contains upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters. The time required to hack that PW is measured in CENTURIES, even if massive online servers are available. I don't have to memorize that PW, or even type it in. The PW manager does that for me.

Ultimately a password manager is a powerful tool that can make your online life far more secure and convenient, but like any tool it depends on how you use it. Trust but verify, and remember in the world of digital security a little paranoia can go a long way to keeping you safe, so trust your instincts.

This is Dave's Garage video Your Passwords Are in Danger: Why You Need a Password Manager Now!

While I won't say which password manager I use, I will talk about the browser I use. Mostly I use Firefox. And I do use Chromium - the somewhat generic version of Chrome - for some stuff. It isn't de-Googled. And I have the Brave browser and LibreWolf installed, though I don't use them regularly.