[SLUG] Passwords and their usage

[Dan Treacy <treacy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey Sluggers,

After some "security issues" in the past week I've been rethinking my
password strategy (if there was ever such a thing) and some of the
"discoveries" have been revealing.

To this point I've been divided in my approach in terms of what is
considered "right". whilst I've had a relatively strong password (8
characters, mixture of upper and lower case and letters and numbers etc)
I've tended to use it way more than I should based on the maxim
that you don't use the same password in different places.

This is where my question/survey lies.

Thinking through I've dsicovered I have AT LEAST 20 different "accounts"
for various places and machines etc. These range from things you need to
be really secure such as online banking and the like to things that it
doesn't really matter such as passwords to login into websites to "read"
them.

So "website" passwords aside should I use unique really strong passwords
for every single account? should there be levels and just a different
pasword for each level?  What is the consensus and what do my fellow
sluggers use.

I'm sure I'm not the only one in this position and the thought of
remembering even 10 or 15 really strong passwords isn't the most
appealing.

Comment. Discuss. Flame.

Dan.