There are Too Many Passwords to Remember

There are too many passwords to remember is a universal truth these days. There was this dream of having a single login that would take you everywhere you need to go, but that dream is dead. It’s time to deal with our 10’s or 100’s of passwords that life with a computer requires these days.

In days of old, our recommendation was to create a handful of passwords that revolved around a theme to help you remember them. In days of old we also said to never write down your password. Well, all of that is bunk now. Times have changed and so the way we manage our passwords has to change too. I know it’s a scary thought but we have a solution to suggest.

  • You need a unique and as complex password as the service will allow. This means every website you visit needs its own crazy password.
  • You’ll be surprised with how many passwords that actually is. When I embarked on this journey I certainly was. I discovered well over 100 sites that I use that require a password. I would have guessed the number to be much closer to 30 so imagine my surprise. It might be your surprise too.
  • In a business people have passwords that no one else has that are critical to the businesses continued operation. Think about your bank, credit card, payroll, vendor site login, customer login, supplier login. Who has these passwords and what happens if the theoretical bus runs them over on their way to work tomorrow?
  • Almost every day websites are being hacked and the recommendation comes down to change your password for that site and everywhere else that you use that password. Most people don’t because it’s too much work and besides we’ve forgotten everywhere that we used that password. Now we’re left vulnerable.

Our search for a solution was prompted by our clients. A couple of you asked for a solution to the spreadsheet and notebooks of passwords that you were trying to maintain. So we asked our peers what they see in use and what works. We investigated them and then settled on 3 that we were going to test on ourselves. What we found was that every solution lacked some feature that we wished it had but that Roboform came the closest to solving the problem for everyone. In our talks with Roboform about areas that we’d like to see improved we are assured that they are in the roadmap and so we’re now ready to recommend Roboform to you as an excellent way to manage your passwords throughout the whole company. I should also note that Roboform has given us a discount so we’re able to save you some money. You’ll be getting 10% off the retail price if you purchase through us. The retail pricing is $39.95 per person one-time fee and $75.90 per company for support and updates annually.

Below is what they advertise as being the feature set. The most important item on the list is the last one – Option Master Password Recovery. Your password vault is secured with a password of your choosing. To me being able to recover that password is not optional, it is mandatory. That password stands between you and all of your stored passwords. It needs to complex and it needs to able to be recovered.

 

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There are many different ways to setup and use Roboform. This variety is one of things that we like about it. I’m now going to show you how I’ve chosen to setup, but you don’t have to do it this way. For you we’ll configure what works for your work style and corporate culture.

I’ve setup Roboform to be my new blank page when I open a blank page in my browser. This way I have my shortcuts handy to click on and it logs me into those pages automatically. The search bar you see there is google search.

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It also automatically builds a list of your most recently logged in places and puts them into a hand side panel that isn’t visible until you click it. I think this because it’s never in the way. You can also flip over to your favorites from here too.

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I’ve also installed a toolbar that gives me easy access to some other tools. These tools let me generate and save a complex password for any site. Automatically fill-in a web form with my saved information. Save my passwords onto a USB key so I can take them with me to another computer and also cool stuff.

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I think the best way to proceed from here is for us to give you a demo. We’ve purchased it and are using it ourselves. Some of us are using some features and some of us other features. Probably just like your employees will do too. After you decide to make the purchase we are recommending a short training session with your staff. Perhaps a lunch and learn for 30 minutes. We do think that it is easy to use and intuitive for most people but we also think that a bit of training is important to get everyone off on the right foot.

Let us know when you are interested.

– Amy

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