Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Yup.
for 26 lower case, 26 upper case, 10 digits, 26 other characters, totaling 88,
the possibilities are 88^(positions)

2 positions would be 88^2 or 7,744 combinations.

8 positions would be 88^8 or 3.59634525E+15 combinations.
That's a crapload!

dwmoar Loc: Oregon, Willamette Valley

Of course and if you were to use special characters it would even be more so.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I usually use the first character in each word in a phrase, random caps, two digits, and two or three characters intermixed.
Usually a minimum of 8 characters.
We currently have over 205 passwords between my wife and I.

Mr. SONY Loc: LI, NY

He's one of my passwords.
Gfk&^ghgeWq549MbV

Think it's strong enough?

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Robertl594 Loc: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Nantucket

It’s getting ridiculous. Passwords, passwords that expire, never getting the right password. Such a PITA!

It’s for our own protection however. There are so many unscrupulous people out there who are trying to get your information so they can access your identity and financials.

I find the simplest and easiest way is 2FA. It’s pretty instant and your phone and computer remember the code when it comes, so it easy to copy and paste it into the login dialogue. Unfortunately, it is a necessary evil of being online today.

muggins88 Loc: Inverness, Florida

I try to avoid Google at all costs. I use Duck Duck Go.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Colorado has a law limiting the cost of the Epi-Pen ($65, maybe), but not all sellers are abiding by the law.

BebuLamar

Lots of passwords and you have to change them often so you can't remember them so you have to write them down and that defeats the password.

Red6

There are a lot of good articles on how to generate good passwords or better yet, passphrases.

A good passphrase should be at LEAST a minimum of 16-18 characters consisting of numbers, upper and lower case letters, and ASCI characters. Simple rule - the longer, the better.

For example: $maryhadAlittlelamb9#

This has 21 characters with the ASCI characters $ and #,a number, and lower and uppercase letters. I checked this simple passphrase with several passphrase checkers and all estimated it would take many thousands of years to break. Most people use passwords or phrases with 8-9 characters. Even desktop computers can crack these in minutes using specialized cracking software.

This passphrase is easy for most to remember and is very secure due to its size. Despite what is seen in movies, passwords or phrases are NOT cracked character by character. Most passwords or passphrases are either stolen or deduced when weak passwords such as the owner's birthday, kid's names, address, or pet's name are used. Or even worse, 12345 or qwerty.

Cracking this passphrase will require the cracking software to use the brute force method, that is, to TRY every combination of letters, numbers and ASCI symbols until it gets the correct combination. And remember, the cracker does NOT know how many characters are in the passphrase so not only the characters themselves have to be correctly determined but the actual number of characters must be found. This all adds up to a LOT of computing time and power.

The goal in passwords or passphrases is to NOT be the low-hanging fruit. If it takes more than a few minutes to break into the normal person's account, the scammer or thief will move on. There are always people using simple and stupid passwords that can be cracked almost instantly. Do NOT be that person.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

OMG, we are so inconvenienced....

I don't usually use my phone for browsing, never (so far) any sites that require a PW, so when the 2AF six digits come in to my phone, I have to manually type ALL SIX into the browser on the computer,
That's AFTER I go get the phone in the other room.....

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I started browsing on my phone in the '90s. It was really useful being able to access the weather radar while I was out in the field.
Today I browse on my phone a lot. Including UHH, which requires a password to sign in, but I can stay signed in so I don't have to enter it every time.
My phone is within reach 99% of the time. My laptop is within reach probably 20% of the time.

And, I will admit that when the internet goes out, I get annoyed.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Out and about, yes. I sometimes might browse something on a road trip, plus Google Maps and weather for where I'm located.
I don't do any "casual" browsing on my phone, only on occasion when traveling (which isn't often) and am without the laptop. 99%+ of my browsing is on a computer.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

I use the password manager, RoboForm, on my desktop and iPhone. Yes, I occasionally still get 2FA, but copying and pasting makes that easier. I'm not overly concerned about "security", I'm too old! In 50+ years of computer usage, I've had two scams on Craig's list due to my naivety and two incidents with credit cards (made up by CC company). I do realize the current scene is much worse now, but worrying about it, in my mind, solves nothing. I take precautions, but I'm not in fear of a scam or other type "invasions"! Most of my "bills" are paid automatically online. I have very few that require paying online via my banks "bill pay service". I never mail a payment. I don't keep records on Quicken anymore. I stopped doing that 10 years ago. I don't even keep a checkbook. The bank(s) have never made an arithmetic error. It takes seconds to see my checking account balance. All my income is deposited in my bank online. Very occasionally, either my wife or I makes a trip to our bank to get cash out of our account.

Worrying accomplishes two things. 1. One gets older while worrying. 2. One gets to worry.
Mark

We keep it simple and try to enjoy each day.
Stay happy and well!!
Mark

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Being a programmer and database developer, I still use Quicken all the time. I can put comments in the memo fields that my bank will not have, I also can see outstanding checks, albeit only a handful each month now. I just like the tracking and reporting available in Quicken. I can categorize expenditures much better than my bank can. But I'm still using the stand-alone 2007 version. My bank has everything I get at Wawa as gasoline I think. Not the case all the time. I can split expenditure amounts into multiple categories. My bank can't. And I have the payment confirmation codes in case there is ever a question/problem.
But, we each have our own method of keeping track of stuff.