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submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago

Honestly, for at home personal use, it's better than any on device password manager. It's not hackable. Someone has to break into your home and steal it. For an office environment though....worst way to handle it after sticky notes.

[-] [email protected] 194 points 1 week ago

Here's the thing .. as crazy as a notebook with passwords sounds, it's not accessible to someone across the internet.

[-] [email protected] 76 points 1 week ago

Password managers check the URL before giving its data. A human being can be fooled into giving it to a fake web site.

[-] [email protected] 46 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

TBF, they can be fooled too.

Bitwarden warns against using autofill on load for that very reason, as then simply loading a malicious page might cause it to provide passwords to such a site.

And then, a human when a site doesn't autofill, is more likely to just go "huh, weird" and do it manually.

[-] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

You've always got the human element, bypassing security features; but extra little hurdles like a password manager refusing to autofill an unknown url is at least one more opportunity for the user to recognize that something's wrong and back away.

If you're already used to manually typing in the auth details, you may not even notice you're not on the site you were expecting.

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[-] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Yeah, It's actually quite a secure way to store passwords, since it requires physical access.

I knew a guy who had a drawer full of slips of paper with passwords written on. He called it the "security drawer". Made me smile, but probably shouldn't have been advertising it.

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[-] [email protected] 75 points 1 week ago

Self hosted and air gapped.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago

As long as the notebook is in a locked draw I would pass this on an IT Audit.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

Unfortunately it's a combination lock, and the code is written on a post-it stuck on the front of the drawer.

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[-] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago
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[-] [email protected] 65 points 1 week ago

Honestly, a physical password book isn't a bad idea.

Not accessible via the internet, and in most cases if someone has physical access to your system you're done for anyway.

The main weakness it has is from a nosey flatmate, spouse, or child in the house.

[-] [email protected] 37 points 1 week ago

Yep. My Dad in his late 70s uses this system and it works great for him.

People make fun of it, but for people with low tech literacy this is actually far better than having a mish-mash of solutions where some their logins end up automatically saved in iOS on their phone, some are saved in Chrome on the desktop, some are just in their head, they don't know where anything is, and are constantly losing access and resetting credentials all the time.

And it definitely reduces the burden on me of parental tech support, when its all in the book.

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[-] [email protected] 53 points 1 week ago

So... It's a password book? Like, pen and paper?Not the best choice for storing passwords, but I'd be more willing to do that than trusting Amazon not to hold my passwords hostage with a digital service by them.

[-] [email protected] 47 points 1 week ago

Still better than using the same password everywhere and/or saving passwords in an unencrypted text file on your computer somewhere.

Just not very user friendly.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

I'm going back to paper for most things and I don't know man, I think it's more user friendly given the current tech landscape. My paper notebook never changed the interface to add a huge Copilot button.

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[-] [email protected] 43 points 1 week ago

I see no issue with this, especially for an elderly person, for example, to keep at home. The only way this will get "breached", is if someone breaks into her home. At that point, the password book is the least of her concerns anyway. In fact, from a cyber security point of view, this is brilliant if kept in a safe place, such as a locked safety box. You can't really remotely hack a physical book.

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[-] [email protected] 37 points 1 week ago

So far the combined might of the Russian, Chinese, American and North Korean hacking teams have been unable to crack the post-it note on my desk.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

now they know where to look.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

If they're in my apartment I've already got bigger problems.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

You didn't know they were coming, didn't tidy up, and now you feel awkward. The struggle is real.

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[-] [email protected] 37 points 1 week ago

this is my internet password logbook

"sanrio spotty dotty diary"

[-] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago

That is tight as hell and I love it

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[-] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago

Oh yeah, this is for my in-laws. This is peak boomer tech right here.

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[-] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago

PSA: Home use? That's probably okay. Work use? If you're in-office, this is a ticking time-bomb that can get you fired, one way or another. Use the company 1password or whatever you have access to, please. Thank you.

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[-] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago

Best option for non techies at home.

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[-] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago

we might laugh at this but I think this is useful. Even though I wouldn't use something like this and I'd just use a regular dedicated blank notebook and my password manager, it can be useful to people who have problems with computers and can't handle a password manager, yet may give pages with good templates to show how to record sensitive information.

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[-] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago
[-] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

* for the tech inclined

Managing sync between mobile and desktop is a bit more complicated than average consumers have the patience for (it’s really not very complicated, average consumers are just impatient)

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[-] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago

I should get this for my dad, he recently got a new computer at best buy and the geek squad told him his files were all in the cloud and sent him home. Guess who got a call the next day because "all my passwords are in a word document in some fucking cloud". Yeah that was a fun day spent setting up his computer while listening to his rant about the geek squad and "the fucking cloud".... thanks geek squad....

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[-] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago

Sure, it's a horrible idea in an open office environment but if someone wants to use this at home for all their passwords it really won't hurt anything.

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[-] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago

This isn't even weird.

I think most security experts would recommend that you have your most important passwords written down somewhere, and then hopefully locked up in some safe or deposit box somewhere. You don't need to buy an entire book for it, but some people like to spend money.

If this is for your less important passwords, then for the most part, writing them down is actually better. You won't be as tempted to reuse your banking password for your social media. And some people like writing things down. A password manager is a better solution, but lots of people aren't as good with technology and if they even let the browser remember it, they won't know how to retrieve it later if they want to use a different computer, for example.

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[-] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)
[-] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago

This isn't the flex you think it is, OP. 99% of cybercriminals are also cowards. Physical security of ANY kind beats even the best password managers.

If you don't know what lattice-based encryption is and how to purchase it through NordVPN, start reading up because encryption as we know it isn't long for this world. Pretty sure they already dragged their feet too long on Bitcoin's algorithm but the day cracking common ciphers is within the grasp of quantum clusters is the day we all become Amish. Plan accordingly!

[-] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

Can't wait to hand write my 32-bit passwords.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

My handwriting comes with free encryption at rest. Even I might not be able to read it.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

You haven't changed your password for 30 days. Reset it now.

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[-] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago

That Web Addresses placement is killing me.

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[-] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

I'd rather people use this than reuse the same password everywhere.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

It's actually super useful for old people, who sometimes like to "accidentally log off" and stuff.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

Or Microsoft who randomly needs to verify someone's identity before they can log into.tgeir computer but the user doesn't have a smart phone. So they need to call someone trusted to have them log into their email from a different computer just to get the code so the user can log into their computer.

But that also means they didn't have access to any saved passwords so a notebook helps.

I really should put Linux on her machine but then I have to show her how to do that too. It's a lose-lose so I keep it the same.

I miss local accounts.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

You can still use local accounts with Windows 11. It's just a bit fiddley. If you use Rufus to make your boot usb, there's a bunch of deshitification options you can do.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

My mother uses something similar to keep track of her passwords for everything. While I prefer a password manager like Bitwarden or Keepass. I would rather her use a note book like this over something like Google or Apples password managers.

Or even worse, the same password for everything.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago

I save all my passwords in a README.txt file

[-] [email protected] 16 points 6 days ago

That's how they get you, i put mine in a DONTREADME.txt file.

[-] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

I would trust it more than the biometric payment method they’re pushing in Whole Foods

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this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025
522 points (100.0% liked)

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