How often do you use the same password for different accounts?

Question

How do you keep track of all the different logins you use on the Internet? Or you just use the same password over and over again?

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Answer 1

A study by Ofcom, the UK communications watchdog, has unearthed some appalling statistics which reveal just how badly the general public treat password security

Why does this matter? Well, imagine you are a member of websites X, Y and Z - and you use the same password on each site. If X suffers from a data leak and their password database is accessed, or if hackers manage to work out your password for X, then the bad guys will not only have access to your X account, but Y and Z as well!

It's worrying that so many people are making life so easy for cybercriminals and identity thieves, when it's actually remarkably simple to make strong password security a part of your everyday life.



In my experience, many people say that the reason they use the same password in multiple places, or choose passwords that are easy to guess or crack, is because they believe it's too difficult to remember different passwords for different websites - especially if they're being forced to use non-dictionary words or throw some funny characters into the mix.



And you know what, they're right. It *is* too hard to remember lots of passwords

Answer 2

I often would use the same great password on all my accounts. That is until I was hacked. Now I have 2 excellent solutions that I use to help me to remember and use multiple passwords.



(1) Use a different password for EACH of your accounts. And to make sure you use a mixture of 16 characters and numbers. I often will pick a small-sized, unique name, of a city somewhere in the world and add a distant cousin's birthday before or after the password.



For example, I select the city name of "Yuanping" a small city in China, change the case to caps for the first and last letter, then add a distant cousin's birthday. The result? YuanpinG05231995



This way I learn new city names, mostly foreign, a little history of that name, plus it helps me to remember the birthdays of my relatives. Something I normally fail at.



(2) As I have a lot of passwords, and customer passwords as I manage other people's websites, it now totals to way past 200 passwords. To accomplish the memory of all these I use an excellent program called LASTPASS from the good folks at http://www.lastpass.com



Lastpass offers both a free and premium type service. It's a highly-secured way to save your passwords; to automatically and securely login to different sites, and it works on all of your devices. Lastpass saves all of your sensitive data and is encrypted and decrypted locally before syncing with LastPass.



Good Luck!

Answer 3

i thought i was the only person that used the same password for different accounts. I have a bad memory remembering things, and it would be easier for me to use the same password. Usually if an account, want capital words or different characters I would come up with something that I can remember that I will never forget. If i click the, "Remeber me" box I will get hacked because there are different people using one computer

Answer 4

I have a bad memory remembering things, so it helps me remember my password by keeping it as the same thing. Usually if an account, wants capital words, more numbers, longer names.I would come up with something like If my password was 'ice-cream' I would change it to 'Icecream12' something easy to remember.



So if i get hacked they can hack into my gmail accounts(i have a few for different things), my steam, and a bunch of other websites i use. So its probably not that good i do it, but its the only way i remember my passwords.

Answer 5

Do you ever use a password to log in to a computer, email account, or website? Do you use the same password for each one? Even if your password is very long or hard to guess, using the same password for many accounts can still be risky. If someone manages to find out your password (for example, via a phishing attack, or if you write your passwords down and someone finds the piece of paper), they could easily access many of your accounts. However, memorizing lots of different passwords can be difficult and confusing. In this computer science project, you will conduct a survey to see how many different passwords people use.

Answer 6

Well ofcourse I use the same password for almost everything. Doesn't every one? If you use different passwords for everything you will get all confused and turned around and end up trying to use the wrong password for an incorrect website. The whole point of using the same password over and over again is that you don't forget.

Answer 7

I do it all the time for accounts I don't care about. If someone wants to hack my Zagat account to get unauthorized access to restaurant reviews or someone wants to access my edx.org account so they can take free on-line courses in my name, I don't see how that can harm me. Not only do I use the same passwords for those accounts but it is a fairly simple password. On the other hand, bank accounts, credit card accounts, shopping accounts and anything else that can conceivably cost me money are protected by strong passwords which are different in every case.

Answer 8

I always use different passwords for different accounts,never the same.It is very important to have different passwords for different accounts to ensure safety.If someone finds out the passwors for one of your accounts,he/she has done the same thing for all your accounts.There is no real safety there,as that peson has access to all your accounts..If you have different passwords for your accounts,then the problem isn't as serious as it could have been.I have 4 different accounts,,all passwords are huge,some of the them contain some letters and numbers (not words),while others have words in them.I have a good memory,so I can rememer every password for every account I have,passwords are easy for me to remember!

Answer 9

I have to many different accounts on the internet to keep track of them using different passwords all the time.



I use a set of three different passwords, which I choose depends on the security need of the account. For things that dont really matter (forums, games etc) I use my default shorter password. For things that have a lot of personal information or which I would rather protect a little better I use a longer, alphanumeric password, and for things that I need maximum security on (things that actually matter, like my email and online banking) I use a long 25 character string of random letters and numbers.

Answer 10

I couldn't if I wanted to. All the accounts have different rules for acceptable passwords. I am up to 5 different passwords just for the office. I need 3 more just to get online from my personal laptop on my home network.

Answer 11

I been using the same password for every account I've ever created since 2007..it's my password for probably over 100 things. Even my best friend uses it as her password for some things

Answer 12

I use almost the same password every time I get a new account on some website! Thats probably not good! Haha :D

Answer 13

I have the same "Base" Password for everything- if I want an account to be secure I add a few extra numbers to the word or a capital letter.



Using a word that doesn't exist but you can pronounce makes a password something difficult to guess but easy to remember.

Answer 14

Pretty much all my passwords are different unless its for a server i don't care about and for those i use the same password, my passwords are usually something like aic134h151

Answer 15

I sometimes use same password, and sometimes different. Most often my password is the same with some modifications just enough to prevent potential problems with remembering or someone finding my password

Answer 16

I use a password generator that I wrote. I put in a phrase and gibberous comes out, the same way each time. I have different phrases for each acct. The nice thing is key loggers would only see the unencoded phrase and not the actual password.

Answer 17

I use about 3 passwords for all of my accounts (more than 10). I gotten hacked about 3-4 times mostly in facebook and in yahoo. How I don't know but I'll tell you that I didn't share my password with anybody.

Answer 18

Nice try, Yahoo. I do often use the same password for different accounts, but before ya'll Yahoo team go trying to steal my users, my Yahoo password is unique.

Answer 19

I don't usually use the same password for every different account on the internet. Plus, I don't think it's safe to have the same password if someone knows one of your passwords.

Answer 20

I use the same format for each password but it's a different password each time. I put the name of an (obscure) pokemon and a number. For instance, I used to use:



Maractus83.



This makes it easy for me to remember because all I have to do is associate the pokemon with the site.

Answer 21

Most of the time id prefer using any one of my preferred two passwords, but, as seen above, it has a different range of acceptable passwords for each site, so i probably have 5/6 or 7 passwords, along with each's usernames. (i forget those more than passwords)

Answer 22

For security purpose I use a special password but when work I use same password every account.

Answer 23

I commonly use the same password, but never for important things such as my online bank account or anything else that might contain some important information. I could care less if someone hacks my facebook account. 4 friends, not a single picture of me on there. Only info they can get are what kinds of things I like and follow.

Answer 24

Never used a same password, even for the accounts I have to change my password every month.



Just adding a few numbers or/and letters to your previous password, you will have new passwords. Adding the symbols like +, - , * , etc., etc. even makes your password very stronger.



So, why having a password over and over again?

Answer 25

I always use the same password so I wont have 5 different passwords and forget some of them xD

Answer 26

I guess its bad, but I only have 3 different passwords, one of them is for my most important things like my itunes account, the other one is for all of my online games and social media, the other is for if I don't think I will ever use it again, but just in case...



I guess there is 4 including my Iphone password

Answer 27

Working on that now. You write down the passwords you use and carry them around like your car keys. I am puzzling out the electronic equivalents.



Update and cutting and pasting random characters seems to be a greater nuisance than encrypting lists and syncing them.



I am ramping up my use of OTP and 2FA, one time passwords and two factor authorization. I still can't figure out how to recover from losing my phone or physical token. The explanations are out there but something is not making a sense to me putting it in practice. The process of recovering forgotten passwords seems a weak point to me. A recovery email protected by 2FA seems one part of a solution. A unique prefix to amswers to recovery questions is another idea. What is the name of your first pet should be answered zyxxyz123321fido instead of just fido. This too must be written down.

Answer 28

I write all the passwords down and put the piece of paper where no one know unstead of me .



or I use the same password for same but not all games of what ever

Answer 29

I have two passwords, my most important accounts have a password that is 32 characters long, my less important accounts have a very simple password that is 10 characters long.

Answer 30

Yes and no. For the non sensitive accounts, I use the same. Not easy to decipher but easy to remember.



For those sensitive accounts, I have one for each.

Although those passwords are easy to remember but hard to decipher, I also write them down to the paper note for easier retrieval.



Sorry for the *English-only* keyboard user. This technique is valid for country which has their own language and keyboard layout.



You set your keyboard to English language and type the *very long phrase* using local language pronunciation. Something like this



;yoouh9v[pkV^

isyl0e'jkpq

gfkpkd,kd57',kdmujl76f

;yogdbfz,gv'

pkV^9hv'.=hisylouh

.=hvpjk'vnjow,jwfh

d^gdb]dHgs,nvodyo



This password for yahoo : lesiy[pkV6gmjkoyho

This password for google : d^gdb]gfk'jkp

This password for ebay : vug[pN.=hw,j[jvp





You see? You may think - who on Earth can remember this sequence?!!?

Sorry - but every Thai Language people will instantly remember that, even after not using it over a year.

Answer 31

Never.



When making passwords

make sure your password is at least ten characters long

and is completely random.

use a mixture of numbers, letters, both upper and lower case and use symbols.



when giving an answer to a security question,

never ever put an actual true answer.

make another password and use that.(again at least ten characters long)



write the passwords down and keep them in a safe place.



using at least ten characters it would take several years to crack the password,

thus making it non-profitable for any hacker to attempt to crack it.



99% of cracked passwords and accounts stolen or misused

are by someone the victim knows personally.



If you've ever wondered just how secure your favourite password is,

here's a simple web site that will tell you.

Just go to http://www.howsecureismypassword.net/ and start typing.

As you type, the indicator is updated after every character

to tell you, approximately,

how long someone on a single desktop PC would typically take to crack it.



You should always Avoid creating passwords that use:

Dictionary words in any language.

Words spelled backwards, common misspellings, and abbreviations.

Sequences or repeated characters. Examples: 12345678, 222222, abcdefg,

or adjacent letters on your keyboard (qwerty).

Also avoid creating passwords that use

Personal information. Your name, birthday, driver's license,

passport number, or similar information.



you can use this

Secure Password Generator > http://passwordsgenerator.net/

to help you create a proper password.



Just remember.

The easiest way to "remember" passwords is to write them down.

It is okay to write passwords down,

but keep the written passwords in a secure safe place.



you could also use a password manager to aid you.

LastPass > https://lastpass.com/

is free and after testing all the top 5 password managers,

this one came out on top for me.



one last thing,

make sure you use

any or all of the safety/security features if offered by whatever

site it is you are signing in to.





.

Answer 32

this question was asked in the senior citizens category a couple of months ago, and seniors have little pieces of paper stuck to their computer as reminders.



After being on the computer 15 years I now have a thick binder of the do's and dont's of all the purchases and numbers, of all ISP numbers, of all phone numbers and addresses and dozens of passwords.

Btw some orz turned me in saying on Facebook that I'm a troll (no, I'm a senior citizen) and won't let me in even WITH my password. They want to steal my identity since they don't believe I am who I am (LOL!!!) and I've given them loads of proof and ways to check and they still won't comply. If one has so many abusers on the net then why are we here people?

Answer 33

Generally it is difficult to remember password for every account. But for important account i make little changes with numeric or symbols in password.

Answer 34

I use similar passwords but not the exact same for every website.

They all have the same theme.

I think the majority of people use the same few passwords for every website.

Answer 35

Like most people, it's hard to remember different passwords paired to different accounts unless if you write them down, which is another security threat. So, if you don't want to write them down but want a simple yet complex password that is easy to remember, follow this formula:



Password = base formula + character + unique pair code (viola!)



1. Develop your base formula to be use over and over. Like "^zExY". If you like, use initials of some significant person or place just add a character and or number (e.g.: "&*^%$#@!") either in the beginning, end or between. To make it even a stronger password, change some of the letters to shift capital. -- MEMORIZE this because the base formula does not change and is the same used in all accounts.



2. Add a unique feature to the base formula either to the end or beginning. To create, use phonetics/syllables of the account names (ie: ya | hoo is YH, goo | gle is GG, etc) and or numbers in succeeding progression or pattern (01, 02.. or 1000, 2000 etc). The choices are endless. Remember the pattern you used because you need to change this feature to all accounts. Decide what method you're going use and stick with it. ie: if you choose the phonetics method don't change it otherwise you need to change all passwords with your new pattern (in this way, even if you forget your password just follow your formula to recover it. But, this won't work if you have different patterns).

=============

e.g.:

(a) Yahoo - (Yah | hoo)

if syllables: ^zExYyh, where (^zExY) is your base and (yh) is your unique pair code

if numbers: ^zExY001 where (^zExY) is your base and (001) is your unique pair code



(b) Google - (Goo | gle)

if syllables: gg ^zExY where (^zExY) is your base and (gg) is your unique pair code

if numbers: 002 ^zExY where (^zExY) is your base and (002) is your unique pair code



and so on and so forth. Easy! Tip: Do not use base formulas that can be phonetically read even if you change the letters to capital. ie: cAt, DoG, bOb, gOD... instead use atC, gdO, BbO, OdG that's why I recommend you use initials of a significant person/place to remember them.

Answer 36

I use the same 3 passwords for all my sites but they re school given passwords so it would be really hard for anyone to guess them as school passwords are jumbles of letters and numbers.

Answer 37

I know I should use different passwords with unique letter, number and symbol combinations, but tbh if anybody found out the password to one of my accounts they could access all of my life.

Answer 38

i have accumilated hundreds of online accounts over the years, there is no way to have a different password for every account and remember the log in ID and password for every account, most people cant remember where they put the car keys in the morning!



and whats the point anyway? to feel secure? your online accounts are already spied upon by various governmental organisations. hackers are rare these days.

Answer 39

Never you should not use the same password for multiple account

Answer 40

I have one secure password that includes the recommended one capital letter(s), number(s), and symbol(s). I use that password for all important things that I know will treat security right, such as Google, financial institutions etc. Then I have a blow away password that I don't care about and use for less important things, or sites that I don't think will have as good security infrastructure.

Answer 41

I dont use the same ones.Although passwords being the boring things they are,it would be very easy to do so especially as only me uses my computer. But in this case I am being sensible and use different ones for the very few sites I am members of.

Answer 42

i begin recently to use the same password because i hate when i forgot my password from a particularly account and then instead of send me a reminder of password as it used to be now they ask you to reset a new one. so I rather use the same but this time I use a really one hard to guess. numbers, letters (mayus and minus) and symbols.

Answer 43

I use the same password for different websites.

Answer 44

you should have at least 3 different password for different account than nobody can guess it. same password are bad. i have at least 5 of them.

Answer 45

Mostly I'm having same passwords for my accounts.

Answer 46

why so you guys can get our password for out yahoo accounts then use our Yahoo Emails And Passwords On Other Websites and Hack Our Stuff?? Never Answer this.

Answer 47

I use the same password for most of my accounts. I've never really had a problem with it.

Answer 48

Most of my passwords are the same, how can you remember so many different passwords??

Answer 49

I simply can't believe all these people cheerfully giving away information about their passwords, and in some cases even the actual passwords too!

Answer 50

I can easily remember all my passwords Email Account and in all cases the advantage.

Answer 51

I almost always use different passwords, for my various online accounts. And I also usually enable 2-step verification for most of the accounts that support it.

Answer 52

You can also use a password manager like KeePass or LastPass to create and store strong unique passwords for the sites you visit. These programs can also save notes like your secret questions and answers to the password entries. LastPass can automatically log you in to any web site you have stored in its database.

Answer 53

I use the same password for pretty much everything except my email an bank accounts.

Answer 54

depending on the account you may not need a different password

Answer 55

All the time, because Its a drag to remember other passwords and have to write them down. So I just use the same one. Even for this site. I use the same as on my games and other stuff. As long as no one knows and you have internet protection from hackers your good. :)

Answer 56

Most of the time I uses same password for all my email accounts. Sometimes it is good as we can remember it, but it is also harmful for us as anybody can hack our account and can do unwanted things.

Answer 57

Password is Password!

Answer 58

Never, for me, a new account means a new password, user, etc.

Answer 59

all my passwords are the same except for one account. and the passwords words are just shuffled out. and there are 11 alpha hexadicmal number charecter and i use a key to find out the correct form "If i ever forget" cus i dont forget becus the words are very memories i have in my life.

Answer 60

I have about three different passwords that I use for different things. Sometimes I use one, other times I use a different one. It basically depends on what I am signing up for.

Answer 61

I use the same password over and over again

Answer 62

I have different passwords for many sites to help me remember I write them down on a sheet of paper that stays in my home

Answer 63

i use the same password or something similar since it is a pain in the *** to forget an important password

Answer 64

A lot, Every thing I have is the one password (CookieFattttbooks111116) For ROBLOX, Minecraft, Gmail

And ma bank account! Hope this helps!!!! :D

Answer 65

I use the same passwords

Answer 66

almost all my passwords are the same for websites if its different i'd change a later or add numbers

Answer 67

I use the same passwords in all my accounts. Including my Gmail.

Answer 68

I think, this is not recommended. For more security you different password in different accounts.

Answer 69

I use the same one for everything, but it's a really complex password.

Answer 70

I never have used the same passwords. Idk why . I keep passwords in a small notebook. I keep my most used passwords on little stickies stuck to my lap top. I don't take the lap top out of the house so I don't worry about someone stealing them.

Answer 71

I write all of my passwords down on a piece of paper.

Answer 72

I have 3 passwords for all of my social media accounts! haha

Answer 73

I 9/10 times use the same password. and 43.7% of statistics are made up.

Answer 74

Zero.

Most of my passwords are at least twelve characters long. Most of my passwords are not words, but random characters.

The ones that are not at least twelve characters with letters, number and symbols are not that way by choice.

Answer 75

Never do only stupid people use the same password

Answer 76

Mine are completely random. I use a secure password manager for this.

Answer 77

I have one strong password for my accounts and one 4 digit pin code for all my gadgets and Debit/Credit cards

Otherwise I would just forget them ha ha

Answer 78

I'm not telling anyone........I may use a different password I may use the same.

Answer 79

Quite often. It helps me remember my password.

Answer 80

never try to use same password for different account. it might be hacked by someone easily.

Answer 81

most of the time i use same passwords, easy to remember

Answer 82

If it meets the required intel, i use the same password for everything

Answer 83

Check your password strength http://sh.st/cvkNc

Answer 84

I only use 1 password, but it can't be traced back to me and it's quite powerfull

Answer 85

never one pass for 2 accounts, each account its own password!

Answer 86

I use the same password for everything!

Answer 87

using same password on all site is not safe

Answer 88

Forever

Answer 89

I mostly reuse my password since it's easier to remember and I never share it.

Answer 90

...a lot...but with something slightly different on the end of each one, or there's a capital letter in some and not in others. I keep everything noted down so I don't lose track...I'm terrible

Answer 91

All the time

Answer 92

all of my accounts has the same passwords, so i cant be confused.

Answer 93

I use Keepass to manage all my passwords, its free, and it also has support for my phone.

Answer 94

i don't, and i have been using a password manager for years

Answer 95

i use the same password for everything!



lol

Answer 96

Comput

Answer 97

I have my computer remember all of mine. I honestly have no clue what it is without looking in my wallet where I have it written down on an old business card of a blockbuster that went out of business a decade ago

Answer 98

i use the same three passwords for everything im gonna get hacked

Answer 99

I use the psychic hotline for all of my computer related password needs....

Answer 100

same password

Answer 101

In direct answer to your questions, it's none of your business. Now I have a question for you. As a well known and widely used search engine, do you feel it is a good idea to ask a question of your userbase that equates to: "Are you a good target for hackers? Please reply yes or no and include your username for this site."

Answer 102

Often

Answer 103

More than I should, but the logins are different, and unusual. And I never have a site 'remember' me.

Answer 104

All the time.

Answer 105

I use the same one for almost everything but I change them at the same time.

Answer 106

same one for every account minus some number changes

Answer 107

My password is always "would-like-to-change-my-YA-profile-pic"



Who would've guessed.

Answer 108

I use different ones... Then, I write them on a piece of paper and hide it in my safe with a key lock and a code lock.

Answer 109

different for most. I have around 30. It gets tough sometimes remembering

Answer 110

now days a computer if you are realy in-tune with youre self, just like a tune-up or change of tires on youre automobile you could feel the difference of change

Answer 111

They're all the same

Answer 112

Very often. Why nosy Yahoo.

fix your problem that I can't change my profile picture, I don't want to be a pretty boy!

???

Answer 113

Reuse so I can remember and google chrome saves it. Bad idea but my house isn't very big so I don't think it can be hacked.

Answer 114

well i always write new password in a paper and keep it in my wallet...

Answer 115

I only have 2 of them. a long one for those annoying sites that requires a lot and a mediem one

Answer 116

actually, i always use the same password in case bi forget it

Answer 117

the exact same 4 everythin

Answer 118

My uncle here has a bunch so he prints them out and

stores them in a folder in his filing cabinet. I have no

problem with mine because I only have two.

Answer 119

Never. I write them all down somewhere though as I have an terrible memory.

Answer 120

never but often the same user

Answer 121

Sometimes, but then I forget which ones I use it for, get mixed up, fix, change, forget, repeat.



All until I write them down.

Answer 122

Sometimes on game sites

Answer 123

Nope alwyas different

Answer 124

Wouldn't you like to know. Now I know why the computer is having trouble, don't I......

Answer 125

When I as an individual have actually aneck or head ache.

Answer 126

Pretty much all my codes are the same

Answer 127

i use the same pasword and usarname for lots acconts even my xbox im supermlgmaster

Answer 128

i use like 15 different passwerdsz. yuze ur brain peepul

Answer 129

I use the same one at all accounts. No one will eveer gusess it.



zp)9u@4K$nnPq+/!

Answer 130

Why should you tell people this when hackers might be looking at this right now?

Answer 131

I never even thought of doing that.

Answer 132

i have the same pass on everyaccount i hv lol

Answer 133

I don't

Answer 134

most of time

Answer 135

everyone of my profiles is the same

Answer 136

almost Everytime

Answer 137

I'm not tellin!

Answer 138

As much as possible.

Answer 139

I'm not telling you. That would be stupid.

Answer 140

Never.

Answer 141

stop trying to hack me lol

Answer 142

a lot, its easier to remember that way

Answer 143

Every time.

Answer 144

I use both equally.

Answer 145

Now... not ever. It is just not safe.

Answer 146

frequently

Answer 147

all of them to everything ! lol

Answer 148

Im aint tellin cos then people will know wat all mi passwords r yeAh

Answer 149

good

Answer 150

never

Answer 151

never

Answer 152

sometimes

Answer 153

when i strictly must then i must!!! if not strictly must then i mustnt!!! ok!!!???!!!

Answer 154

VERY