Pesky passwords

Have you ever felt like your life is ruled by passwords? We need a password for almost every web applications and software systems. I have a password for booting up my office laptop, logging into the office network, online transactions for internet banking, EPF account, loyalty programs, and countless other applications. There is also a password for all the various software systems in the office such as the customer database software, sales tracking software, accounting software and many more.

The worst thing about this password thingy is that different applications have different rules for passwords. Some require six characters, others eight characters; some allow using just alphabetical letters while others require a combination of alpha-numeric characters. And yet some require a combination of both capital and small letters. Because of these varied requirements, I have different passwords for different purposes and that poses a great challenge for my ever depleting grey cells.

What takes the icing of the cake is those that require me to change my password every three months or so. And the worse thing is I'm not allowed to repeat the last 24 passwords used. How on earth could I ever remember what I've used for the past 72 months (that's six years for heaven's sake)!

I've tried various ways to help me remember these pesky passwords such as writing them down in my diary and changing only the last digit for those requiring alpha-numeric characters so I only need to remember the nth time that same password has been used. But these still have not prevented me from being logged out due to failure to remember all these pesky passwords. I really wish there is a better way to manage these passwords, just as there's zetta.net for enterprise-grade online backup and disaster recovery.