Worst Way to Update Your Password

Another day, and another data breach in the news. This time it was Capitol One that got hacked, with a gal in Seattle responsible for accessing over a million customer records, including SS numbers, credit scores, addresses, and all the other standard, personal information that we trust companies to keep safe.

I'm not worried about this one because I don't have a Capitol One account. But I did run into a password issue last night.  Here's what I DON'T recommend you do when updating passwords: let your MacBook pick it for you!

The problem started when someone sent me a file I needed to print from the Google Cloud. Logging into my cloud account, it said: "wrong password, try again." I tried the three or four normal ones I use for everything (bad advice according to security experts!) and when none of those worked, I went to update a new password.

I grew frustrated after my first couple of new passwords were rejected for not being strong enough or enough characters. That's when I decided to just let my MacBook use it's suggested password. Easy, right?

No. Seconds later, my phone dings, letting me know I need to re-log back into my Google accounts with the newly updated password. The problem was when you let Apple pick a password for you, it looks something like this: rAj%38-Uhvn-n44-Xr4s7-iutt8-8Q-0978j>. Are you frickin' kidding me?! I didn't write down the new password!!! How in the hell am I supposed to remember something like that?!

So I reset my password, yet again.  This time using a slight deviation of the one I always use. So. Many. Passwords.