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Comment by jimhefferon | Hacker News Reader

But surely the danger feared by most people on computers is not people in their office peeking at their notebook to memorize a password or two? Surely the average person worried about their passwords has in mind the Bulgarian mafia getting all their passwords and ruining their life for some time to come?

In that context, it seems to me, a paper solution is not totally daft.

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Storing passwords unencrypted on a piece of handwritten paper in your wallet is exactly what Bruce Schneier recommended few years ago.

Really? I googled to check but only found Password Safe.

The rule of thumb that I apply is to use a very strong, very hard to remember vault password, and to write that down and store it with your taxes or something.

The reasoning being that the thief breaking into your home doesn't care about a random sequence of characters, and how it might allow him to steal your online identity if he boots your computer and finds your vault file.

He cares about the resell value of your camera, iPhone and maybe Macbook.

Edit: I believe OP meant this article:

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/06/write_down_yo...

This is the problem my startup is going to solve! It's going to be a service connecting muggers and burglars who steal your physical stuff with criminals who want your passwords! I'm going to call it Robbr!

I used a natty paper notebook for years and in fact I borrowed this method from my mother who seems to feel guilty that she writes this stuff down but I try and reassure her that its ok. In fact I've recently moved away from the notebook for myself because I felt that if somebody breaks into my residence and takes that notebook (not all thieves are ignorant of how valuable a password book is, especially when this contains banking passwords) then all is lost. I'm using the KeePass/dropbox combo with a long passphrase these days though as I've decided that its more secure than the notebook and I can put more explicit information in there (and files), though it is somewhat nerdy so I still recommend the paper notebook for people like my mother.

I am considering that I should store the keepass database somewhere else as a backup but not sure exactly where (at least the file server at my work) and also that I should tell the passphrase to somebody (perhaps an old university friend I don't see often; he does not live nearby or work with me) in case of my untimely demise

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