Security vets rally around $4 paper password books for sale in Australia

Are you sick and tired of maintaining a password manager? Struggling with choosing the right one for you? Well, readers who live Down Under can get themselves down to their local AusPost branch where they can pick up an old-school alternative for just AU$4.90 (US$3.51).

Password books are something of a historical relic, phased out largely because of the scrutiny associated with using one and the now-gray-haired elders who once scoffed at the mere notion of such an opsec crime.

They might not be able to suggest a strong password for each of your many online accounts, and they won’t do you much good if your house is burgled, but you could argue that there is still value to be found in a pen-and-paper password vault.

That’s exactly the conclusion drawn by the thousands of social media users who flocked to a post this week from one Australian who found stacks of password books for sale in their local post office.

Small books are priced at AU$4.90 (US$3.51), while larger options will set you back a dollar extra.

Granted, there are myriad issues associated with relying on a physical document for digital account security.

For one, it’s a single point of failure.

Lose the book or have it stolen, and it’s a painful road to restoring access to all your accounts.

One could argue that if it’s kept inside the home and it’s stolen, then you’ve got bigger problems on your hands, but perhaps that’s not as true nowadays, when so many of our valuables are either stored or primarily accessed online.

That said, it might bring a quick end to a hostage scenario – the type that is becoming all the more common as crypto wealth becomes increasingly common.

Password books are also not as easily manageable as a modern password manager.

The technological equivalent can auto-fill credentials, auto-update them if they’re found in public breaches, and suggest unique, strong strings to minimize the risk of compromise.

You can’t store a passkey in a password book, either – a major issue now that the world is transitioning toward the new authentication standard.

But using a password book no longer carries the same stigma as it once did among infosec types.