HACKER Q&A
📣 helghardt

What is the best password management guide for 50 year olds?


Password management is hard, but my parents really have a hard time following/remembering the basics. I am looking for a fool proof guide that I can print out and add it to the fridge for my parents to follow. Beyond passwords, a guide around avoiding scams/phishing/etc.


  👤 ggm Accepted Answer ✓
Print out a tabular sheet of

  Website name | account name | password | Date last changed | Notes (check qs and additional login info)
I am doing this for my 80yo mentee.

Paper is safer imho. I'd love to take him to a password store but he's ipad and integrations are poor. The built in Keystore is fine: he just forgets which ones he's reused. Chrome does good checks if you love Google.

2FA needed. I wish it wasn't SIM/txt but for now it's all I can reliably get him to apart from Apple "check trusted device"

Distinct pw per account is increasingly vital. Seniors have shitloads of risk in their pension banking and related.


👤 throwaway798214
What does being ~50 years old have to do with anything? I'm 50 and I'm the one who designs and implements those login screens, password managers, authentication databases etc etc...

The actual question is why haven't we solved authention in a way that would work for most people? Passwords suck. Webauth sucks. Two-factor sucks more than you can ever imagine. There isn't a way to authenticate that wouldn't suck for normal people (apart from password-less one-time sessions but those don't solve most auth problems).

That said, what's wrong with the time-tested way of Post-IT notes? No, it's not secure but it's one of the only ways that actually works with normal non-autistic people. Or like @ggm said above, a paper with login codes attached to their fridge with magnets. It just f*cking works.


👤 dazc
My dad locks himself of accounts on a weekly basis. Paper is the only system that is anyway reliable. Ultimately, the only 100% system is me, although not always convenient.

He used to manage fine when he could use the same password for everything but alas those days are gone.

Funnily enough I had to hack into his account last week since he was locked out and the only way back in was a phone call to the bank which I was able to make and answer every question required for a reset. It was basically standard name address and date of birth stuff.


👤 gregjor
Use a password manager. Let it generate and remember passwords. Built-in to MacOS/iOS/iPadOS, including MFA. I switched my parents to iPads a few years ago, terminating my frustrating pro bono IT support contract with them.

👤 brudgers
I know an old person who uses a Rolodex S-3000.

Seems to work well for them.