Question:
We’re advised to use difficult passwords for our various online accounts and to keep changing them in order to avoid being hacked. But how do you keep track of these and provide the information to whoever will take over for you in the event of incapacity or death?
Response:
This is difficult. One option is to use a password manager such as LastPass: https://www.lastpass.com/
What I do, which is not totally secure, is to use a few standard passwords that I can remember and share with family members. When I have to change a password, I switch to another of the ones I use regularly. However, I sometimes run into a problem when the application won’t allow me to use a password I had used in the past or they require a really large number of characters.
At one point, I had been keeping a list of my usernames and passwords for my various accounts, but not it’s mostly out-of-date.
Fortunately, I believe this is becoming less of an issue with more and more websites, especially financial ones, adding in their own security protections such as two-factor authentication. Our law firm case management system requires the use of an Authenticator on our cell phones to log in.
Ultimately, I don’t think there’s an ideal solution. It’s simply a matter of balancing security and practicality.
