I’ve collected a huge number of username/password combinations over the years, and some time ago gave up trying to keep up with them all in my head.  Once you give up trying, the freedom is a great thing.  On the other hand this means finding some other process for managing account credentials.  The best process I’ve found is to use a Password Manager.

I follow the advice of one of the Three Wise Men of Cybersecurity, Bruce Schneier, on this topic.  His favorite password manager (which he did help to develop) is Password Safe.  More information can be found at this location:

https://www.schneier.com/passsafe.html

Sadly for me, it doesn’t support OS X.  Consequently I followed more of his advice and did some reading.  My personal favorite is Dashlane, which can be found at this location:

 https://www.dashlane.com

Here are some articles which led me to it (if I remember correctly):

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/11/changing_passwo.html

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/06/a_really_good_a.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/06/technology/personaltech/too-many-passwords-and-no-way-to-remember-them-until-now.html?_r=0

Lastly, I need to comment on how to manage the ‘super-password’ – the one which opens the password manager.  If that one gets lost, we experience a denial of service attack against ourselves.  That would be embarrassing!  Somewhere on Mr. Schneier’s site I read that a really good idea is to write the all-important passwords down on something the size of a business card, laminate the card, and then store it with your drivers’ license.  How often do you lose your driver’s license?  Not often, I hope.  If someone steals your wallet you may want to have a backup copy with your passport (or whatever) so that you can maybe login to your password manager when you get home and change the password.  Fast.