The latest internet violation

kcmoedoe wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
And that's the perfect reason for a password manager of some kind. There are several out there, and most can be used on a mobile platform. They can be kind of inconvenient, but, to my mind anyway, they are worth a bit of inconvenience.

And if the hackers crack the password to your password manager account? If you get specifically targeted, they can beat you. The simple truth, however, is you are very UNLIKELY to be specifically targeted. I just refuse to lose sleep every time there is another report of some data breach, especially since it is almost a daily occurance.

My response was directed toward the poster that was talking about his girlfriend who couldn't remember passwords. With a password manager you only need to remember one, or none at all if you decide not to use one. It's just easier to use than trying to remember tons of passwords.

Reacting hysterically is just too much work, but no sense in just rolling over and playing dead either. You do what you can and see what happens. Not paying any attention to security is just plain stupid. Most crackers are not interested in your data anyway, they mostly want your computer for part of a botnet.

fj12ryder wrote:
And that's the perfect reason for a password manager of some kind. There are several out there, and most can be used on a mobile platform. They can be kind of inconvenient, but, to my mind anyway, they are worth a bit of inconvenience.

And if the hackers crack the password to your password manager account? If you get specifically targeted, they can beat you. The simple truth, however, is you are very UNLIKELY to be specifically targeted. I just refuse to lose sleep every time there is another report of some data breach, especially since it is almost a daily occurance.

And that's the perfect reason for a password manager of some kind. There are several out there, and most can be used on a mobile platform. They can be kind of inconvenient, but, to my mind anyway, they are worth a bit of inconvenience.

The problem isn't changing pwds, it's remembering them. I have my own scheme for that, but the poor GF doesn't, and therefore she's locked herself out of many of her own accounts.

And many sites have their own specific requirements, which makes having one pwd darn difficult.

I quit using actual words for passwords long ago, that's one of the reasons I love Roboform. Any password manager will work, but I have used Roboform for a couple decades now and recommend it highly. But I don't take advantage of the online storage of my passwords, commonly known as Roboform Everywhere. It's handy, but having my passwords out there on someone else's server makes me a tad nervous.

I easily have a couple hundred "accounts", none of which share a password.

Let's see, it takes something like a minute to change the password on my account. Yesterday I went in and changed my banking accounts. I will likely do nothing with my other accounts as I really don't care if someone hacks my e-mail but I really am more comfortable with belt and suspenders when it comes to my money.

X2.

Approximately 3 billion people world wide have Internet Access.

But here's anther way to look at , how many accounts does the average Internet user have? 5? 10? 20? You're right, it doesn't really matter if they get your World of Warcraft account. But far too many people use the same passwords for multiple accounts. Get into one account, they can get into more. Moreover most people still use simple easy to crack dictionary passwords. They (cyber crooks) count on this. And all they need is one account tied to a credit card or bank account. So if you feel comfortable with the notion of "lottery odds", then your head is buried in the sand. I'm not trying to sound offensive but its naive to think you aren't vulnerable.

EDIT: Make sure to read Brian Krebs' interview with Hold Security to get a better understanding of the scale that we're talking about here.

kcmoedoe wrote:
Got a sneaking suspicion that this is yet another waaaay overhyped event. What exactly constitutes 1.2 billion account holders? It surely can't be 1.2 billion individual people, because I doubt that there are that many people in the world who have accounts with passwords, since a large percentage of the world's population consists of incredibly poor people in China, India and Africa who have no accounts to password protect.

It's not people, but unique credentials. I must have unique access passwords to 20-30 different accounts. Emails, forums, shopping, banking, etc.

China is not so dirt poor anymore.

There's nothing that says honest people, including people who should know otherwise, can't be scammed. That's how a scammer works: you get people to trust you and rely on your advice.

Got a sneaking suspicion that this is yet another waaaay overhyped event. What exactly constitutes 1.2 billion account holders? It surely can't be 1.2 billion individual people, because I doubt that there are that many people in the world who have accounts with passwords, since a large percentage of the world's population consists of incredibly poor people in China, India and Africa who have no accounts to password protect. Another large segment of the population are children, again with no accounts to protect. If they stole your password to get onto your World of Warcraft account, does it really matter if they steal your battle ostrich (apologies to Sheldon Cooper of the Big Bang Theory)? Then you are still dealing with the laws of large numbers. If even one one-hundredth of the supposed accounts were actual accounts that could have something of value stolen from them, there is still only a one in 12,000,000 chance of it being your account. Those are dang near lottery odds.