Remembering Passwords
| Field | ITC, Online Identiy |
| Went Obsolete | 2007 |
| Made Obsolete By | Online Password Managers & OpenID? |
| Knowledge Assumed | You can fill out a web form |
| When useful | When you have less than three passwords to remember |
Remembering passwords is a viable (secure) solution for:
1. People with less than three passwords (usually not Internet users) 2. People with more than three passwords and a fantastic memory
Remembering passwords is NOT a viable (secure) solution for:
3. People who use the same passwords for everything 4. People who use some sort of nifty and (supposedly) fail-safe formula
Sorry to disappoint you, but those are the *very* people that need a password manager - and pronto!
Also OpenID? is looking to alleviate the same problem by removing the need for passwords in a large portion of the web.
I work in IT. I probably have 20 or more passwords I need to memorize as I need them all the time. This does not count my personal at home ones.
