To be totally and utterly sick to the back teeth of passwords

[LordBrightside]

And log ins and security?

The National Lottery app of my iPhone suddenly requires me to log-in to check results. Of course I try and it doesn't work.

This happens a lot with lots of apps and website at home and at work and it does my nut in.

My phone is protected by a pin and fingerprint recognition FFS. Why doesn't it just stay logged into things?

Sick of it!

Because the companies involved have to comply with data protection legislation, and if your data is accessed because you have no password, they won't be able to get round the legislation by saying you should have secured your phone.

Use something like lastpass?

Yanbu.
I get really, really annoyed with sites forcing me to choose a password I will never remember too. Uppercase, lowercase, a number and a character. On most sites I have to reset my password whenever I log in.

I understand the need for security but it's starting to feel like they are taking the piss.

Annoying, isn't it?

Quite a few sites have lost business from me because I couldn't remember my passwords and had to buy what I wanted elsewhere.

It is ridiculous and I find it so tiresome. I must have at least 50 passwords and have to check every time.

YANBU. How do they seriously expect people to remember passwords without writing them down?

And they all have different formats (lengths and whether symbols, capitals etc are required) and you're not allowed to use the same one on all sites anyway.

Even worse are all the reset questions for when you forget, especially those based on opinion, not fact. I genuinely do not have a favourite colour, book or film so can never put an answer to questions of this type.

One site once told me my mother's maiden name was too short , but that is irrelevant these days because most sites don't allow us to use things as obvious as that.

Best advice I was given for a password was this:

• Think of a word or phrase you can easily remember. For example "potato"
• Substitute a few letters for numbers: p0tat0
• For each different website you register with add the first and last letters as capitals, so for Mumsnet it would become: Mp0tat0T

it means you only need to remember one word for all your passwords because the name of the website will tell you what first and last letters to use!

potato is not my memorable word

I answer the reset questions with suitable lies :) You can say anythkng to the favourite colour question.

Passwords are blimmin annoying though.

But how am I supposed to remember what I told a website my favourite colour was months/years ago?

Osmiornica

That's properly made me laugh, not internet LOL'ing... brilliant!

Cavemum that's brilliant. Thanks

It will make things much easier.

Even better, easier to remember, and more secure:

The first 4 characters of the website you're accessing in CAPS: In this case -MUMS
Then the first letters of each word of a sentence: For example: 'I Really Like The Website Mumsnet' would be irltwm. So far you have MUMSirltwm
Then add a date (ddmm) or number you know e.g. 1101

So the entire password is MUMSirltwm1101. Very complex to crack, nobody knows what your sentence is and very, very easy to remember. And you don't have a real word anywhere in your password. The beauty is it changes for every single website. You can also get funk and make it super-tight by adding say a '!' (special character) in place of one of the numbers.

I agree, and the passwords requested are getting more and more complicated. I have to change my work passwords every month, and I can't use part of the same one! So no mumsnet1, mumsnet2 et.. It's a nightmare

It is really tiresome. Latest one is my son has a pay as you go phone with Vodafone. They have moved to two-step verification. They didn't email me to tell me, they just did it. So when I next log in, I need to wait for a text to go to my son's phone. So if I want to top up I have to have his phone with me. Fortunately I've been able to add my own mobile as a second option but it is so over the top. All you need the account for is to top up your account and buy text/data packages etc. I wouldn't mind so much if (a) it was a website with some sensitive data and (b) they'd sent an email explaining the new policy.

Passwords are eminently hackable. Even if you have something complicated. And it's not generally someone's account that is hacked, it's the website that gets hacked and then the hacker has access to everyone's details. Having a "secure" password does not help in those cases.

If you are interested in cybersecurity Futurelearn does a great course on it. I don't work for them but I do like their courses. They are free.

Get a password manager. HTH

My online life is about a million times less furstrating now I have a password manager. Random site I visited 3 years ago that needs a password - why lo and behold here it is saved in my password manager :-)

There is some initial upfront work to change all your passwords to decent strong passwords but then you're golden.