[kwlug-disc] 2FA Google Authentication and Best Practices with passwords

[Remi Gauvin]

On 2022-02-04 6:21 a.m., Darren Pond wrote:

> 
> What is everyone doing about Passwords and documentation?
> 
> This new to me Google Authentication at first look was ok seems like a
> good idea.
>

Google for the past 2 years has been a constant source of support calls
with their aggressive AI driven security and challenges.  It finally
cummulated to someone whose entire e-mail domain was disabled with no
exlanation, no customer service, and no recovery.  (Presumably, if I
went through the process of proving the domain via DNS, someone would
review the support ticket within 72 hours,,, but the process to even
apply for this review would not work with web errors.. Now that e-mail
has been migrated to fastmail, the domain owner has requested I don't
bother spend any more time trying to fix google account.)

I'm sorry if this was not the right place for a google rant, but my
point being, I would not trust them with custody of anything that I needed!


AS for best practices,, there's of course the Geek answer of of
something exotic and technical, like KeePass.  For anyone who has tried
to bring this idea to the masses,,, the idea doesn't work so well in
real life, and will really not help with estate issue.

The Good ol' password book is still the only solution that works for
people willing (or, more usually, forced by me) to not re-use passwords.
 Unfortunately, constantly changing passwords means these become a mess
after a few years of crossed out and hard to find entries, often with
stale records.  For this reason, my favorite method to suggest is a
simple, efficient, index card box.  Cards can simply be replaced when
account information changes, and kept in alphabetical order for easy
searching.