Most people hate changing their passwords, especially when they are forced to do so. In fact, a recent study by Microsoft showed that frequent password changes are proving to be useless. Results suggest that that not only is it a waste of time for administrators to implement password changes to every user in their databases, but also that it is useless for users to spend the time changing passwords. The study has provided significant information that it really doesn’t make sense to make password changes because if someone has stolen your password, they will most likely use it immediately. We’ll also go ahead and argue that forcing people to change passwords makes them do silly things like write them down because they can’t remember them. By now, we should all know that writing passwords down is a bad idea.

Let’s jump for a moment to the other end of the spectrum: sites that never let you change your password. Once such site, fring, recently admitted to the fact that you can’t change your password on their site. According to their site, fring is a mobile internet service & community that enables users to talk, chat & interact with other fringsters and their online communities, from their mobile phones. In a recent interview, the company said:

“…you cannot change your password on fring, once registered. The way around it is to ask us to delete your account and have you re-create it with a new one”

This is, as you can imagine, unacceptable for most web users, especially considering fring actually stores all of your messaging passwords (Skype, MSN, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, SIP, Facebook, and Twitter to name a few).

Using Mitto Can Help

By using Mitto as your password manager of choice, you can combat both of these scenarios:

• When you are required to change your passwords, you can store them in Mitto so that you don’t forget, and so they’re not lying around on your desk on a sticky note.
• You can make unchangeable passwords strong and unique.  It’s always a good idea to use different, strong passwords for every site, and Mitto can help you generate strong passwords that you’ll never need to remember (because we do!). For sites like fring where you can’t change your password, create a strong unique password which is different from all of your other passwords. By never using that password for any of your other sites, you greatly reduce the chances of having your online identities compromised.

Let us know what you think about sites that force you to change your passwords, or about sites that won’t let you change your passwords by commenting below.