How often do you change passwords - a secure MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I went thru a minor panic last night - I couldn’t access my main email (the one I use for banking, bill-paying, and all significant correspondence.) Immediate fear was a hack for reasons, but, unfortunately before I did a google and discovered it was a provider issue. All is fine now.

But in my panic mode, I immediately went to all the important sites and changed passwords. I had been thinking of late I should probably do that anyway, since I reused quite a few (yeah, I know) and it had been a while since I’d changed any. But I’m good now, and I can access my email, and panic has subsided.

When I worked, we were required to change passwords at least quarterly - especially the ones on the classified networks. I would do it monthly, using the month and year as part so I didn’t have to remember completely new passwords. In my personal life, obviously, I was more slack. I should probably rethink that.

OK, then, Happy Moanday! Be secure!!

2

First! (snicker)

I change passwords every few years on personal stuff. Also do the same to housekeys (just re-keyed some of the locks last weekend).

Good Morning all,
We’re finally recovering from helping kids move and deal with abusive SO’s (plural), getting all the broken things fixed, and getting started on recovery from violent hailstorms a few weeks back. Roofers are supposed to be here today to go over details and get a deposit (total loss). So in contractor-speak that means they’ll be here tomorrow - but maybe we can get it all done this week. Also, the shed, fences, gutters, A/C units – you know… the typical Texas hailstorm results. At least this time none of our cars were totaled (damaged, but still usable).

Youngest is safely in Greece, archeaology-ing somewhere in the Med for the summer, and eldest is facing surgery soon. One of us will travel to the cold and smoky NE to assist in driving/fetching/etc. while said eldest is laid up. One of us will stay and watch over the contractors and perform minor dog-wrangling.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. I just finished a week of jury duty too. Never rains but it pours.

Hoping everyone has a good week. Jeez retirement has gotten busy…

3

I think some of my very old accounts may still have some of my old and oft-reused passwords, but I’m not using them hardly at all anymore so I think I’m safe from contemporary hacking if they ever used them. I did go through a phase of updating a bunch of them, and now my current passwords are all random 8-12 character gobbledegook.

I don’t change passwords unless I am informed of a breach.

I just cut my finger while making my lunches for the week. Ouchies.

4

Passwords are one of the most annoying things about interwebbery. You are comManded 2 use @ least one symbol, one number, and one upper case letter.

My search bubble tells me it’s International Moon Day. I didn’t know that was a thing, but today I shall occasionally think of Frank Zappa’s daughter Moon Zappa. You might think of different moons.

5

When my grandson was swimming this weekend, his trunks were slipping down in the back, tho not all the way. So more of a half-moon.

:smiley:

6

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up, caffeinated, fed, and purtified, so no YAWN. ‘Tis 78 Amurrkin out and sunny with a predicted high of 90 (it’s a veritable cold front!) with the possibility of rain/tstorms/apocalypse around five p.m. That is also the start time for VBS this evenin’. I shall be a RDOS sloth until time to head over to the church house just cause I can. Tonight is an easy feed for the little crumb snatchers as we’ll have pizza, sallit, fruit and brownies. My main job will be to go to Domino’s to pick up the pizzas cause I said I would. I am told they will be ordered around three-thirty. I will be informed when that occurs. Some will be pepperoni, and some just cheese, cause kids.

MOOOOOOM I think I said it in the last MMP, but glad there was no breach. Probably doesn’t hurt to change passwords a couple of times a year. Not that I am all that diligent myself. Perhaps I should do that this week.

Yanker glad the kids are settled and hope eldest is better soonest. Yikes on the hailstorm! Haven’t been through a bad one in years, but do remember all the hassles with insurance, roof replacement etc.

BatBoy OUCHIE! Hope the cut heals soonest.

7

Me, neither, but I did spend a few moments during last night’s closing duties to admire the absolutely gorgeous crescent moon.

It was quite orange-ish, which I assume is, sadly, a lingering effect of the Canada fires, but it had that perfect fairy tale shape and hung low in the sky just above the trees.

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Good morning.

It’s 58F and mostly clear. We’re supposed to have high clouds today, with a daytime high of 86F.

While still working, I changed some passwords every 28 days (to beat the 30-day requirement to change them). I would put the reminder on my calendar, and if I were going to be on leave, I’d change the password before I left. At home, I change them as needed or if I’ve forgotten the password and have to reset. I have too many, and some are gobbledygook, so they’re easy to forget or get off by one or two characters.

Another day of steamcleaning happened, although, by the time I was done with the stairs, I was over it. Today I’ll do the great room, and tonight, the downstairs hallway and the den. Those need to be done at night after my husband has gone to bed because the hallway sees a lot of traffic.

I also need to run to Costco to pick up the doggos’ prescriptions this morning, and I’ll need to water the plants since it’ll be so warm.

I will have to let my husband water the plants after my surgery (for about a week or two). My garden hose is a very heavy contractor-grade hose. Trying to wrestle that on a slope is a workout. But, I plan to ask the doc about it, because I’d rather water the plants myself than supervise my husband. He wants to do it, and in fact, told me he was going to, but, well, I’d just rather do it myself. He mentioned to me when I returned from my trip to Oregon that he was surprised by how long it took. My preferred method of watering is a soak at the base of each plant, and I have many plants and flowers.

I dunno, it just seems silly that I can’t even lift a hose to water, so I plan to ask about it.

Speaking of the surgery, it’s scheduled for this surgery, and I’m hoping to receive the email today telling me what time I need to be there. I hope I’m scheduled for the early morning. I’d prefer to be done and home by noon.

Well, that’s about it for now. I need another cup of coffee, and I need to be in the shower by 7:30 so I hit Costco when it opens for Executive members.

Please take care of yourselves.

9

Changing your passwords every few weeks is a good defense against the scenario where some malefactor gets ahold of your password somehow, and then waits a few weeks before enacting whatever their evil plan is. Judge for yourself how common that scenario is. Now judge for yourself the security competence of any system administrator who requires that.

10

I got back from my walk, and barely brushed the door jamb with my left forearm as I came in. Now I have a big purple bruise there. :enraged_face:

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Good morning all, and starting what I hope is a routine week back home. Clear skies and 77F heading to 91F later. Need to do my normal Moanday shopping and sammich run and try to get back into the gym habit (I doubt I’m going to like what I see on the scale today). Downloaded my pictures and will try to get a few of them up on the Book of Faces (which reminds me, I never posted a lot of my April sailing vacation, so maybe get those up to).

As for passwords, I change the PIN on my computer every 6 months and will change the financial ones on an irregular basis, but leave most of the rest alone.

Yanker, good to see you about the MMP and hopefully the repair work goes well, both personally for your kids and physically for your house. And yeah, retirement can be busy…but I do try to avoid that…

Knots, know what you mean, I tend to use airports (3 letter combos, either caps or no caps), significant dates I don’t forget, and a couple symbols I can disguise, so I can write them out in a code that makes sense only to me–at least I hope so.

I’m fond of Ganymede myself…

swampy, have a good time with the littles.

Taters, understand about watering your plants, but please follow the Docs instructions.

Flyboy, I sympathize, I get bruises and spots on the back of my hands at times and have no clue when or where I bumped them.

12

Good Morning, all! For once my walking alarm and bladder alarm were in sync with when I’d rather get up. Chloé and I had a good walk. It’s now dark enough that she has to wear her light up vest again. The sunrise was nice, but I think the thunderstorms we had last night reduced the particulates in the upper atmosphere, so the reds weren’t as prominent.

Mrs Magill and Squeaky are up in State College, PA touring Penn State today. After the tour, they’re heading up to Buffalo to visit Mrs Magill’s alma mater, SUNY at Buffalo. I know there will be at least one visit to Duff’s for wings.

I should change my passwords more often, but that would require me to remember new passwords, and there is only so my my brain can take.

Yanker I’ve been in your kids’ situation, and I can tell you they are more grateful than you know for helping them escape. They just may not know it yet.

Batboy Remember the number one rule: The blood stays on the inside.

Doggio No! Stay good!

Well, this was unexpected.
:grin:

13

Oh, I plan to follow the doc’s instructions, believe me. Not following them only lengthens the recovery time and could possibly damage the work done on the eyes. What Mr. Taters doesn’t know yet is that he’ll have to do the rollsucking and sweeping, too. Because you can’t bend over, which is really hard not to NOT do. These doggos shed a lot, and sweeping is a constant, at least twice-daily chore. The vacuum is a Dyson and is heaving, so I can’t roll that around either.

Pullin, so good to see you again. I hope all goes well with the repairs and the kiddos’ lives reset.

Okay, back to chores.

14

That was the hardest part for me. Jolene and George just did not understand that they had to jump up fer pettings cause I couldn’t bend over for belly rubs.

I haven’t changed my passwords since I retired. Well, a few changes were forced on me but other than that, I don’t change them.

I think that constant password changes is bad for data security because if people can’t remember their password after changing it a dozen times a year, they will write it down. Back when I was working, I could log into anyone’s account if left alone at their desk for three minutes. A list taped under the keyboard was the favorite option, but kneehole drawers were also pretty popular.

I suppose that i might end up eating my words someday, but its worked for me this long.

15

This was for your cataract surgery, right? I didn’t have any such restrictions. I was told to take a week off yoga, so I wouldn’t get sweat in my eyes. That was it.

16

This is my criteria for changing passwords at home. That tends to make it whenever I crank up a new device and have one or two that the cloud forgot.

I’m inclined to agree with you on this point.

Up, caffeinating, breakfasted and fixing to do KP. Not a whole lot slated for the day except picking up a 'scrip and (finally) exchanging the CO2 cartridge.

Nelson was favoring his left front leg this morning when we walked, so I gave him a half carprofen (doggy ibuprofen). If that doesn’t do the trick, I’ll call the vet for an appointment.

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

17

There are enough unusual names in my and FCD’s families, including some unique spellings, that the word portion of passwords can be reused, changing only numbers and symbols.I’ve found that using old phone numbers for the numeric part is also helpful. At work, one trick I’d use was making vowels upper case and consonants lower.

One thing I never completely understood was the rule of not repeating numbers - that is 1234 was OK but not 1134. I know that was to prevent someone from using 1111, but I would think that permitting some repeats would add security. But what do I know…

All my car needed was the oil change - to the tune of $78! Oil has gotten expensive!!! Thanks, Uncle Donnie… :stuck_out_tongue: I am pleased they didn’t find any problems. The car is close to the stage where repairs just won’t be worth it, so I hold my breath when I take it in. I’m good with routine maintenance items, but as soon as Paul says “transmission” or “engine”, well, that could spell the end of the line.

Oh, and apart from my password panic last night, my brain took a stroll into my past that led to, well, let me explain. 50 years ago, I was stationed with Mike. That’s his real name, but so what?? One day, Mike showed me a picture of his daughter, as parents will do. It was your basic school photo, probably kindergarten or 1st grade. (Holy crap - his daughter could be a grandmother now!!!) Anyway, it was not a flattering pic. And I know what those are like - in 12 years of school, I had exactly 2 decent pictures of me. But I digress.

For all I know, the girl wasn’t feeling well, or like me, she hated sitting for photos. So I mustered up a proper comment, maybe about her curls or her cute blouse or something to please Mike.

And that led me to remembering the singer/comedian Stephen Lynch and his song Baby. I will not post a link, but it’s easily found. However, while I think the song is hilarious, it does have a dark edge that may be difficult for some people, or it might offend the humor-impaired. So unless you’re just a bit twisted, don’t look, Ethel!!!

OK, I’m going to work on our Book of the Dead, as FCD has called our notebook of important documents, etc. Should I predecease him, he’d have no idea about our finances and accounts and such, and if we died together, Daughter would be in a similar mess. So I’m going to document everything for their benefit. I guess for mine, too, since my memory aint’ what it used to be.

18

I’m another who uses LastPass as a random password generator for sites with sensitive information. Seems like it would be extremely difficult for anyone to decipher those, so I don’t change them.

I’m going to call my hip/shoulder doctor today and make an appointment for my achy hips. Had a horrible night last night: lots of trips to the bathroom for some reason, plus the hip pain waking me up leaves me in a cranky mood today. Skipped exercise class and opted for oatmeal for breakfast instead of anything more ambitious. Followed with a dessert of two Excedrin.

I bought the wife a present on Amazon. She never knows what day of the week it is, and while she could just ask Alexa, it doesn’t occur to her to do that. So I ordered a digital day/date/time clock made specifically with seniors in mind. Large numbers and a bright display. She’s happy.

Speaking of Amazon, I just went through the maze of trying to get a replacement for the boxes of Kleenex that never arrived. Finding the page that helps with that is not intuitive, but I finally figured it out and it’s on the way. I have to say that while I really dislike Bezos (and most other intentionally bald white men), Amazon has their collective shit together when it comes to customer service. In all the years I’ve been using them, I’ve had very few problems.

This should be our last 90+ day for a week. Huzzah!

19

I’d be in the same state as FCD should Mrs Magill buy it first. When she had her second bought of cancer three years ago, she got a book called something like, “So I’m dead. Now what?” that she’s recorded such things in, including hints to passwords.

20

Afternoon all.

'nother day, nother Primer minister, 'nother bewildering session of staring at the computer.

I’m not telling you sneaky lot how often I change my passwords! You’ll be asking for me bank details next :winking_face_with_tongue:
I did work at a little grocery shop for a bit where the override password needed changing every week. It alternated between 12345 and 54321.

I was surprised at irk to discover one of the other office members- who is the same age as me - doesn’t actually have an email address other than the irk one, or any home internet, even though she uses online banking and billing. Seems a little… risky…

Got the rest of the laundry done, as I didn’t get round to doing the sheets at the weekend and I shall be going in tomorrow. I’m hoping I can pick someone’s brains on something. It does mean getting up and dressed at a sensible time though…