My cheap password manager trick that actually fooled my coworkers

Found out the hard way after a break-in that my company's default password policy was garbage. Everyone used the same pattern. So I started using a weird method. I pick a random line from a book I'm reading, take the first letter of each word. Then I add the page number and a weird character I find on my keyboard. My boss watched me log in once and asked what I was doing. Laughed it off but nobody can guess my passwords now. They keep asking for my 'secret sauce' and I just say nope. Anyone else use something offbeat like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

holly_reed551mo ago

Yeah it's like how everyone thinks they need some fancy kitchen gadget when a good knife and a cutting board do the job, overcomplicating stuff just makes more room for things to go wrong. Kinda reminds me of those elaborate filing systems people invent at work that collapse the second someone takes a sick day.

miles_burns1mo ago

Honestly this sounds like a pain in the ass for no real gain. You're basically making yourself a bigger target because now everyone knows you have some special method. If I was your boss, I'd be side-eyeing you hard. Plus what happens when you lose that book or forget which page number you used? Now you're locked out of your own accounts resetting everything. And that "weird character" thing? Most corporate systems block half of those anyway. Seems like you're overcomplicating something that a simple password manager like Bitwarden or even just diceware passwords solves cleaner. Your coworkers probably aren't asking for your secret sauce because they're impressed, they're asking because they think you're doing something sketchy.

the_diana1mo ago

Miles, what if your password manager itself becomes the single point of failure though.