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Cyber Skill #23
Keeping a list of your passwords and serial numbers

Introduction
Call me hyper-organized, but I have a current list of all of my online passwords (100+) and computer software serial numbers in a password-protected Excel spreadsheet that is on a diskette, not on the hard drive of my computer.

And I have a print out of this list for easy reference. This list also includes the vendors who ding my corporate credit card each month for services/contracts and it includes account info/contact info for all of my bank accounts credit cards and vendors.

There are ways to save your usernames and passwords on your hard drive and in your web browser and I use those too. But it's great to have a hard copy and diskette outside of my hard drive, just in case...

Peace of mind is a cyber skill too.

So, if ever...

1. My laptop is lost, stolen or crashes, it's not that big of a deal. The software codes are separate and my FTP accounts (for website uploading and online memberships/vendor log ins (70+) user name and passwords are easily found and replaced.

2. A credit card is lost or stolen, I can fax the credit card company contact info and ALL of the vendors charging that card so they can update everything.

3. When the credit card expires, I know which vendors need the new expiration date for that card.

Okay, maybe I go overboard with this, but my computer is my intellectual factory and I'm far too busy to recreate this type of information if the computer is lost or stolen. Call it a super-reserve if you will. Frees up more personal RAM for my creativity.

Even if nothing bad ever happens for the next 40 years of my life, I'll sleep better today knowing that I'm as prepared/protected as possible. That's comforting.

PDF Form
Here's a PDF to print out and keep a written list of your serial numbers, log ins, etc. Obviously, keep this in a highly secure place. (Adobe Acrobat Reader required to view; free at http://www.adobe.com. -- from an earlier lesson, right?)

Click here for PDF form

Part of being CertifiedCyber is being ahead of the e-game. And sleeping well at night.

Newly added information

This was received from a coaching client and she makes several excellent points!

One addition to the ID/password encrypted Excel file idea: the file could also be saved to the web, although many computer experts are somewhat hesitant to do this.

First, it's VERY IMPORTANT that the file be encrypted if it is to be saved to the web. You don't want to give away the passcodes to your bank account!

But once it's safely encrypted, it can be saved to private space on the web. There are a number of services that sell such space, and a couple that give away space.

www.ureach.com - gives away an email account and 6 mb of space. Sell more space as you need it. www.yahoo.com - gives away 30 mb of space with your Yahoo account! Its a little difficult to get used to, but quite handy. And you can't beat the price.

WHY?
- Because you can then access your file from any computer with web access. I've looked up ID/password combinations while on vacation so I could check my bank account. I also have used this to look up ID/passwords from my computer at work.

- Because it's EXTRA safe. Company's that have critical data on their servers not only backup that data to tape, but they also move some of those tapes (usually one set a month or one set a week) *offsite* so that a natural disaster that hits the office won't also destroy the only backups. If your home office was struck by fire, you could lose your machine AND you backup diskette. But you could still get to any data that you stored elsewhere... like on the web. (There may be other critical files you want to protect to this length, also).

- Because you can move your data offsite while still sitting at your keyboard. You don't have to get in a car and take your backup somewhere else.

Was something not clear? Was there a typo or other error?
While we aren't able to provide 1-1 tech support, please email confusion-questions-corrections-improvements to reply@coachbrian.com. Again, we won't reply to your email but it will be read and this course will be improved as a direct result of your assistance.