If the computer is in even a marginally secure place, storing passwords on physical paper is better than what a lot of people do.
Of all the proverbial bullets I’ve been hit with, none had my name on them; they were all addressed “To whom it may concern”. The times my identity has been stolen or my accounts compromised it was because somebody attacked some fairly large entity, like Alphabet or Equifax or Microsoft or Visa. Nobody’s going to walk into my house looking for my passwords. They might walk into my house looking for my television, but that hasn’t happened to this house longer than I’ve been alive.
Yep, there’s a reason 2FA recovery keys are usually printed and stored safely.
With that said, one way to avoid someone compromising service A due to somebody breaking into service B is to have different passwords everywhere, so a Password Manager is more convenient anyway.
Which is why I use a password manager. There are some passwords that I do keep human readable and typeable, like my home wi-fi password, because…enter a password like ghQ953mGh0hY0eo5vgnj;lse%tp[n9a36 into my niece’s Switch Lite when she comes to visit. For that I do the CorrectHorseBatteryStaple thing. But for most passwords for services that aren’t in my physical control I use my PM’s random string generator.
For home Wi-Fi I use a strong password, but that’s because it’s something I input once in a blue moon. For guests I have a guest Wi-Fi with a simpler* (still reasonably secure and random, but shorter and without special characters) password and a QR code for simple use, though they are rate limited and have no access to any other network clients.
The worst part of the left one is the implication they have only two passwords. The “under the keyboard” part at least requires physical access and (hopefully) means its not something stupid or short like “p@ssw0rd”.
This is why passphrases are better than passwords. So the “Under the keyboard” can be used as password. It has 3 out of the 4 types to match complexity and plentiful for length. And so much easier ro remember. It could be also a quote from your favorite movie or book, part of a lyric of your favorite song, etc.
Meanwhile, half of the people at every company I’ve ever worked at:
If the computer is in even a marginally secure place, storing passwords on physical paper is better than what a lot of people do.
Of all the proverbial bullets I’ve been hit with, none had my name on them; they were all addressed “To whom it may concern”. The times my identity has been stolen or my accounts compromised it was because somebody attacked some fairly large entity, like Alphabet or Equifax or Microsoft or Visa. Nobody’s going to walk into my house looking for my passwords. They might walk into my house looking for my television, but that hasn’t happened to this house longer than I’ve been alive.
Yep, there’s a reason 2FA recovery keys are usually printed and stored safely.
With that said, one way to avoid someone compromising service A due to somebody breaking into service B is to have different passwords everywhere, so a Password Manager is more convenient anyway.
Which is why I use a password manager. There are some passwords that I do keep human readable and typeable, like my home wi-fi password, because…enter a password like ghQ953mGh0hY0eo5vgnj;lse%tp[n9a36 into my niece’s Switch Lite when she comes to visit. For that I do the CorrectHorseBatteryStaple thing. But for most passwords for services that aren’t in my physical control I use my PM’s random string generator.
For home Wi-Fi I use a strong password, but that’s because it’s something I input once in a blue moon. For guests I have a guest Wi-Fi with a simpler* (still reasonably secure and random, but shorter and without special characters) password and a QR code for simple use, though they are rate limited and have no access to any other network clients.
Oct0ber2026!
The worst part of the left one is the implication they have only two passwords. The “under the keyboard” part at least requires physical access and (hopefully) means its not something stupid or short like “p@ssw0rd”.
This is why passphrases are better than passwords. So the “Under the keyboard” can be used as password. It has 3 out of the 4 types to match complexity and plentiful for length. And so much easier ro remember. It could be also a quote from your favorite movie or book, part of a lyric of your favorite song, etc.
That’s fine at home. Not so great in an office, though
I agree, but if I had to choose between someone reusing passwords and someone who kept them under the keyboard I’d probably choose the latter
You can’t fit that many post-it notes under the keyboard though, so if they’re doing the latter they’re probably doing the former
I have yet to see a sticky note password that was anywhere near NIST compliant lol.