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hpr1834 :: Password Cards

How to hide a password using a password card

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Hosted by Jon Kulp on 2015-08-13 is flagged as Clean and is released under a CC-BY-SA license.
Privacy, security, passwords. 1.
The show is available on the Internet Archive at: https://archive.org/details/hpr1834

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Duration: 00:08:20

Privacy and Security.

In this open series, you can contribute shows that are on the topic of Privacy and Security

How to Hide a Password Using a Password Card

It's okay to write your password down and keep it in your wallet, but it's best to try to hide it as well. Here's how to keep your password secure and handy at the same time by embedding it in a password card.

Method 1

Generate a fancy symbol-and-color-coded password card at passwordcard.org: https://www.passwordcard.org/en. Follow the directions there on how to use it best.

Method 2

Make your own. Use the password generation package pwgen on Linux to generate a whole bunch of random passwords. In the following example, the -s flag tells it you want secure passwords that are generated randomly, not suitable for human memory. The -y flag tells it to include special characters, and 24 indicates how many characters each password should contain.

pwgen -sy 24

Then either use one of the passwords that was generated from this command or embed your own existing password somewhere inside the giant block of gibberish such that only you will know where your password begins and ends. You can put a copy of this in your wallet.

4b$0<k=#;?MJ^K:Uw\6zmP5s
Y;4T3G+jUwJ!R+DT{2=6-^$"
!]""YmR%x.2uG"MGhm)TLyJA
}L)xpxG\1n"\]bC#+/t<a1*@
'3^B`&mSHP@2p1s0;.Rrz_8k
skXLD!YAq|Ic!Y9(?DZKD:Oq
;#/)sCz7PEbly7>/W|KlbveO
a0}amC@^{+aKhnHMgc$qq$XX
A#!o2FhIkD1Fu(K?nE!Szru4
iDAw2=MIa~KE)q'C>S|`A*q.
Y=g'_0i{BOXr8O4N11f8&yRf
~+r^kB%#4o;zs:HWA/a'4U#`
3":6E$PQ:y%D=^ENM5;!q^n4
i"n~oy"4KT/XYY2IV_A%3Sg\
/evf,L5NSX$2-5b;OvZuhN$_
ds4ZD.t/!0yqcey.1?%P'M!u
'GDS-jBN+'NB}cr7~Wy=;JSE
aI&7Byy$79Yf#gU|>@x_3IY2
-jyziY2pZ5M*#iL?9p+^F%PO
QUj&|HVDw2#x+t`1&zW"'Rp{

If you want extra security make two columns or increase the character count.

ra;aH5v"}2lF()\;K0f-G;YT 3XGq>wQ6")UvSU#NpYfr,M(h
PCgM%L)O[mra3vgsX{"0rV"0 7>qSluuegS<#;V-nI"uyc$bX
JE+4MxT/[t&i0\(ndpE(z\%@ }ZS\3<xdG1]G%wf9;k6*_94%
FFZ}gR9hyZ=EsC6QgMz:n$=U h&-O+Wz7L8LmehF&znhF8#Ig
p`4C3PN^1F"AmlQe=[pkz<EM /,FOfQtR|"c8EzN8ug?i359=
a%i;X3~g0SqbKM|]#{hReCmP }.#EOVPxCX)b!r_>o@V9J_^9
H-<FAQ4I]SPlX!$o#I?~2ACy -<JE82-'YV@bl;O_>(nxPgVH
PNHYp2_[-q9G?$Z:m?yZiAH. Xj(mZ0,7EabI-TL4-7RWK]n9
HCmiaZV{8EHREpS5Ppi_^SCl DTzK!CkZ#.c<3I;#}A#D(n$c
<koQz[`F99"{/vB~GcSt@n,* :J&*}n~.#F%{ErSs7j:}eyly
=!F:m65sA5utY,<AU\8~Omz2 @P"*SIR/\Ln0H;1JjM7P"{[0
8hk%p-)_3(P>;p.ROtRevNX_ BbwP00-Vq-5:38O.Z9MGom-n
9,txEI%j+'7=7T@?X7^j^*`U ;!R<$|r3(QuJmsZe6}C(7%&s
X]`(;_6S@@<}Ia[&fZ3*naG7 fij5f)Mkp;EDO.CP""*~8{-^
S2_'(C8Fn&[%nJ%`S3&r.N2< *$o\Nrl*vJ0;zq7G3}wtMd0h
%is{8%'^[b$Cu;a5_RYpy]LM k-=7(<\uQ|hQH-m9.WYq6tx+
Vmb&c!$.@P>\`1;1@ln(B#GY eQu\~"L'*xX%_)CTl*}8#2oD
=6I'>(_nIsu=D2J{l4a4tf5x 3/7J1Rm.G.Hwo=Xm=Lv"o}jF
RYV/lC1|t&;!]@4#2r-h<88/ o[B[qZq@;=/MD8hX|nnZ-0$j
5k`x|:.0G{sra@WiuhHr^aU> Dy@Df^op.WCT)3jD(|T,I7E"

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Comment #1 posted on 2015-09-03 13:16:37 by Dave Morriss

Very useful

The password card idea is really good. I'd never come across it before.

I also didn't know about pwgen. I used to use a tool called apg at my work but that was in the days when an 8-character alphanumeric password was regarded as highly secure.

Thanks for the ambient sounds of birdsong in this episode by the way :-)

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