Die-hard passwords

You do not need to feel bad if you still use passwords.

The countless biometrics means of personal identification have not yet completely killed the time-honoured password system. Eye iris scan, fingerprints, palm print, face and voice recognition have found their way in many applications, but passwords still have a long life to live.

Tech heads find passwords antiquated, unsecure and prone to being forgotten. It’s all true, but one has to admit that the simplicity of the concept often outweighs every argument against it. Not to mention that passwords are free and don’t need the additional electronics that biometrics require, that you have to pay for and that can fail anytime just like any equipment or device.

Beside, over the years users have learnt that by creating passwords that have 10 characters and more, and by using a combination of capital and small alphabet letters, numbers and special characters, they generate this way complex passwords that are relatively secure and are harder to crack by ill-intentioned third parties. 

The Central Bank of Jordan has instructed banks to ensure that all credit cards have a PIN code assigned to them and that has to be entered manually to validate each transaction, so as to provide better protection to the card owner in case of card theft. A PIN (Personal Identification Number) is nothing but a password.

So it’s understood, while personal identification methods based on biometrics keep making progress, the most widely used system to date remains passwords.

Perhaps the main weakness of the concept is not the less-than-perfect security it provides as much as it is the difficulty one has to memorise a large number of passwords. How do you do that now that we all have to create, maintain and remember tens if not hundreds of passwords? 

Everything today requires a password (or access code): online banking, computers, smartphones, credit cards, social networks, e-mail, online government services (tax, municipality, etc.), and virtually every account you create on the web, whether for shopping, playing online games or other. You easily reach or exceed 100 passwords. Some users admit to maintaining a list of 200 passwords and more.

Remembering every password you use is almost impossible once you exceed say 20 or 30, especially if you made sure to create complex passwords, not to mention that some sensitive sites, online banking more particularly, ask you to change your access code at regular intervals.

There is only one way to properly manage a large number of codes. It consists of storing them in a secure database or Excel sheet and to assign one very strong and complex password that lets you open this database or Excel sheet where you can search and retrieve the other passwords. Naturally the code for the database or Excel is the one to memorise and never to forget, or else it is doomsday and the usual nervous breakdown.

Whereas an Excel sheet will do, a good database is a better solution. It provides more flexibility and easier search. Ideally it should be a database that you would keep on your smartphone, for understandable, practical reasons. By definition, a password is information you may need anytime, anywhere, not just at home or at work. Therefore a smartphone makes the best device since you always have it at hand.

There are countless database applications on the web to manage passwords, for Android and iOS, and that can do the trick perfectly. Most are free and some cost anything from one to five dinars. Software developers have been making them for years now, ever since the “pocket computer” or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) phenomenon started more than 15 years ago. However, with the recent surge of fancy smartphones, this type of application has been greatly perfected now. It is well designed, safe and easy to use.

When searching AppStore or Google play, just enter “password database” as search key and you’ll be presented with several apps. Then you’ll have to choose one. It is not always an easy task but reading users reviews would certainly help.