by Jim J Jones

Created on: May 19, 2009

With the dawn of the internet and net-based business came the beginning of a shadowy underworld in programming and computer science which preyed on the unsuspecting visitors to websites that require credit cards for purchase. Essentially, there is a massive, worldwide identity theft operation going on. It has no leader, no headquarters, and there is no way to track it down and kill it. The only thing to be done is to keep it at bay by outsmarting it at every turn. To this end, the password was developed by some clever software engineer.

The whole point of a password is that distinguishes between unauthorized users (non-password bearers) and authorized users (password bearers). Having only one password for every website on the entire internet is rendered impossible (or at least impractical) by the varying specifications for passwords from one site to the next. Some sites insist on a six-to-eight letter password, while another might call for a 12-character-or-more password with at least one number in it. For this reason many people draw the reasonable conclusion that they must find some way to remember their dozens of different passwords. They find it easiest to simply record them someplace - often on a Word Document with a title like "passwords".

But the credit-card thieves and spammers aren't stupid. They know how people defend against their attacks. Their response is to design malicious software (often referred to as "malware") which breaks into the computer and then searches for anything from a file labeled "passwords" to documents containing long strings of letters or numbers that don't appear in dictionaries. Simply put, saving your passwords on a computer you aren't absolutely sure is 100% secure is reckless, especially if the document contains usernames and passwords for websites that grant the user control of his/her financial assets.

Writing the password on a post-it note - assuming that this is a physical post-it note rather than a virtual one - is quite possibly the most secure way to store sensitive information, short of memorizing dozens of different passwords. Post-it notes are not subject to attacks by viral computer programs, and they can only be seen by people who are in a person's inner circle of associates. So unless your kids or coworkers are intent on stealing your passwords, breaking into your email, or stealing your life's savings, you really don't have much of anything to be worried about. So long as you refrain from scanning that post-it note into a document on your computer.

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