Password selection and personality? A couple of days ago I read a book review in one of our local newspapers, in which the authors (of the book) suggested that the computer passwords you select can reveal a lot about your personality. Let me say right up front that if that’s the case — if your passwords do reveal a lot about your personality — then you are sadly, even dangerously, off track in the way you select passwords.
For more on passwords you might want to take a look at this earlier article of mine, but first let’s look at this personality thing.
The authors nominated eight password categories and assigned specific personality types to each…
1. A lover’s name. You are a loyal type likely to stray, but can also indicate obsession or lack of imagination.
2. Work-related. A dull or career-obsessed workhorse who lack the imagination necessary to climb the corporate ladder.
3. Numerical passwords. Logical to the point of humorlessness.
4. Your own name or nickname. Self-obsessed and egotistical, but also over-confident, driven and desperate to achieve.
5. Fantasist. Using passwords like “sexy”, “stud” or “goddess” is similar to using your own name/nickname, but you’re also likely to be a risk taker and thrill-seeker away from work.
6. Names of pets. The nostalgic type. You believe that other people just don’t understand you so you reserve your sensitive side and innermost thoughts for “Fluffy” or “Spot”.
7. Favourite band, sports team, etc. You’re a romantic, and life is one long, determined fight to stay happy and positive. People either admire your upbeat attitude or see you as a gullible sucker.
8. The Cryptic. You “agonize” over concocting passwords that are an intricate mix of letters, numbers and punctuation marks. In the author’s words: “This air of intellectual mystery defines you as pretentious, arrogant and more than a little paranoid”.
What do you think? See yourself in any of categories 1 to 7? If so, I’d really like to get you headed in the right direction.
The category that bothers me the most is #8. The purpose of a password is to protect something, and an easily guessed password is little or no protection. If it is your habit to choose passwords that are an “intricate mix of letters, numbers and punctuation marks”, then I don’t really care about the psychology behind your reasoning because, from a security standpoint, you are way ahead of everyone else.
On the other hand, if you don’t use passwords that are an “intricate mix of letters, numbers and punctuation marks” then I strongly suggest you forget the pop-psychology and start doing just that.
The Solution
Fortunately you don’t have to “agonize” over coming up with good, reliable, secure passwords. There is an excellent — I’ll go so far as to say indispensable — application that will not only create truly arcane passwords quickly whenever you need one, but it will even remember them for you. After all, one of the reasons that many people don’t use truly appropriate passwords is that they can’t remember them.
I’ve mentioned it before, and no doubt this won’t be the last time you’ll hear me extolling its virtues, because I see this little tool as a very important part of your security arsenal. It’s called RoboForm. There is a free version which you can use to get a feel for the product, but anyone serious about their online safety will want the full version.
Finally, I haven’t read the book that prompted this article, and to be honest I’m not likely to, although I admit to a passing interest in the study of body language. But if it’s the sort of thing that takes your fancy you can find “The You Code” on Amazon.com
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
personally prefer to keep all my passwords on mine
or in a document in my main computer
If I can’t remember a password just have to open that document and will have it
Any way , nice info.
Hey Mike, I used to do it that way too, back in the dark ages before I got me some edumacation
but I’ve been using RoboForm for a couple of years now.
Theres no comparison between RoboForm’s password management and keeping a list of passwords. R/F also has a secure password generator and Safenotes, which I used extensively for storing sensitive info.
Really my friend, you don’t know what your missing. As Bill has said “wouldn’t be without it”.
Mike, in the interests of security I really, really hope you’ve got that list of passwords encrypted!
And if you have, then you’re faced with the extra delay and inconvenience of accessing its contents when you need them.
Also, if you’re using the sort of passwords that you SHOULD be using, you would need to have a very exceptional memory indeed to remember more than one or two — if even that many.
Give RoboForm a try — you can use all the features for free and only upgrade to the paid version when you need to store more Passcards, Identities, etc than the free version allows.
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