Online security

[Bryn]

https://www.reviewgeek.com/113090/the-great-cyberwar-has-just-begun-you-need-to-protect-yourself/

Ouch! Can a Host please edit the thread title to correct the typo? It should read "online", not "inline".

[Serial_Apologist]

https://www.reviewgeek.com/113090/th...tect-yourself/

Ouch! Can a Host please edit the thread title to correct the typo? It should read "online", not "inline".

"The scourage"

Best take your scourge in both hands, that being the case!

[LHC]

I expect people have seen this before, but it is a useful reminder about choosing simple passwords.

[Cockney Sparrow]

I'm glad to say my current convention for passwords puts me in the 37 billion years category. I use only alphabetical and numeric characters and use a combination which have meaning or interest for me - the dates I would like to remember in any case. But I don't use all of the characters in the word - say it could be the last 5 characters, and the date is broken up in the same 2 places in the password format. As the layout is "standard" I can, for key services have (in my phone) a clue - the clue also being 3 words (1 for each word, 1 for the date, 3 in all). The clue is "by association" and reasonably obscure.

If one of my words in the password, in its complete form, is "Lincoln" my clue would be Abe (for Abraham L. because I know I am thinking of the Lincoln memorial in Washington). So I can choose the number of characters from "Lincoln" by which I can recall the password. "Greenwich" could lead to the date of the battle of Trafalgar, the association being the fascination I had as a young child with Nelson's scarred uniform from Trafalgar, in the Maritime museum. As I use about 20 - 25 words/dates chosen in random combination, I find this manageable.

I am aware of password managers - rather deposits all the keys to my accounts in one place, busting password managers IT system must be an attractive target for hackers, surely? For less used accounts my passwords are in a spreadsheet but only the 3 "clues". The clues and corresponding passwords themselves are in an anonymous notebook on my desk. (When I can't recall what the clue refers to, I'll know I'm in deep trouble, memory wise - I already have a little difficulty in quickly recalling some names.........).

I subscribe to Computeractive which has helped me over the years setting up and sorting out computers and devices, and their problems. There has been a lot of discussion in recent issues on how to form a strong password - including acronyms (which for some reason didn't appeal to me).

[Dave2002]

I'm glad to say my current convention for passwords puts me in the 37 billion years category. I use only alphabetical and numeric characters and use a combination which have meaning or interest for me - the dates I would like to remember in any case. But I don't use all of the characters in the word - say it could be the last 5 characters, and the date is broken up in the same 2 places in the password format. As the layout is "standard" I can, for key services have (in my phone) a clue - the clue also being 3 words (1 for each word, 1 for the date, 3 in all). The clue is "by association" and reasonably obscure.

If one of my words in the password, in its complete form, is "Lincoln" my clue would be Abe (for Abraham L. because I know I am thinking of the Lincoln memorial in Washington). So I can choose the number of characters from "Lincoln" by which I can recall the password. "Greenwich" could lead to the date of the battle of Trafalgar, the association being the fascination I had as a young child with Nelson's scarred uniform from Trafalgar, in the Maritime museum. As I use about 20 - 25 words/dates chosen in random combination, I find this manageable.

I am aware of password managers - rather deposits all the keys to my accounts in one place, busting password managers IT system must be an attractive target for hackers, surely? For less used accounts my passwords are in a spreadsheet but only the 3 "clues". The clues and corresponding passwords themselves are in an anonymous notebook on my desk. (When I can't recall what the clue refers to, I'll know I'm in deep trouble, memory wise - I already have a little difficulty in quickly recalling some names.........).

I subscribe to Computeractive which has helped me over the years setting up and sorting out computers and devices, and their problems. There has been a lot of discussion in recent issues on how to form a strong password - including acronyms (which for some reason didn't appeal to me).

I think you've just given us all clues as to how to bust your password in a lot less than 37 bn years.

[Cockney Sparrow]

I think you've just given us all clues as to how to bust your password in a lot less than 37 bn years.

The examples are completely unrelated to the words I use, but if your are minded to have a go, do let us know how you are getting on....... from time to time.

[eighthobstruction]

....Amazon has completely just gone rogue on me....a few months ago Amazon just abbreviated what was neccessary to activate a 'sale'....I liked the long way, with myself having to put in all info [I felt this was the securest way]....then Amazon abbrev' down to one or two clicks without my initiating it....now when i buy from Amazon my email address/password/and mobile phone are all displayed back to me for me to see....on Sunday while registering for My5 the same info was displayed back to me in the same format....I find this very disconcerting....

[Serial_Apologist]

I was wondering if this thread is a suitable place to raise the fact that I've had to pre-re-register to the forum twice in a row now!

[oddoneout]

....Amazon has completely just gone rogue on me....a few months ago Amazon just abbreviated what was neccessary to activate a 'sale'....I liked the long way, with myself having to put in all info [I felt this was the securest way]....then Amazon abbrev' down to one or two clicks without my initiating it....now when i buy from Amazon my email address/password/and mobile phone are all displayed back to me for me to see....on Sunday while registering for My5 the same info was displayed back to me in the same format....I find this very disconcerting....

It should be possible to turn off autofill either through Amazon account settings or browser settings?

[eighthobstruction]

It should be possible to turn off autofill either through Amazon account settings or browser settings?

....You put a ? at the end

....it is the My5TV connection that worries me most....

[oddoneout]

....You put a ? at the end

....it is the My5TV reconnection that worries me most....

Primarily because I have only once undertaken such a task, and not with Amazon, so didn't want to state it as fact,( but a quick bit of googling did suggest two possible methods), but also my general cynicism that just because something should, in a decent world, be possible, doesn't mean it is! Or if it is , it will only be with a great deal of effort as the body concerned does its best to prevent you.
Also, I didn't know if you'd already gone down that route and not succeeded.

[eighthobstruction]

....I'm at sea about it all....the only route I have tried is via Amazon Chatbot....no help....Amazon phone call....unable to communicate (lack of Eng-Hindi)....another chatbot better but they wanted screenshots etc (I no can do)....So at the Mo' I'm saying the Consumers Prayer....<<Don't let this take too long/don't let them lock me out of my account/don't let them give me a scheme I can't comprehend.etc Amen.... Thanks oddoneout (make as if I never even mentioned it....)

....on #10 I edited reconnection to connection

[Dave2002]

There could be more than one explanation for the My5 anomaly. As suggested some autofill setting might have been set up in the browser, though surely that shouldn't be generic, but rather site specific. OTOH it really could be some "helpful" tech organisation meddling with individual data. Just to make this perhaps a little clearer, many of the "other" big tech companies use AWS for storage - AWS meaning Amazon Web Services, so data leaks or other unwarranted activities are certainly slightly plausible.

[Maclintick]

....I'm at sea about it all....the only route I have tried is via Amazon Chatbot....no help....Amazon phone call....unable to communicate (lack of Eng-Hindi)....another chatbot better but they wanted screenshots etc (I no can do)....So at the Mo' I'm saying the Consumers Prayer....<<Don't let this take too long/don't let them lock me out of my account/don't let them give me a scheme I can't comprehend.etc Amen.... Thanks oddoneout (make as if I never even mentioned it....)

....on #10 I edited reconnection to connection

Oh dear, 8thobst. Sorry you've suffered at the hands of the notoriously customer-phobic Amazon chatbots, whose only function is delay and obfuscation, followed by more of same, but not necessarily in the same order, just to sow additional confusion.

Screenshots are actually not difficult. In Mac, command+shift+4 will bring up a cropping tool which will allow you to drag a rectangle around the area you want to capture. The resulting screenshot will then land on your desktop, when you can send it off as an e-mail attachment to wherever. In Windows the command Windows key+shift+S will bring up a snipping tool similar to the Mac cropping tool, and then allow you to save the snip or screenshot anywhere you want.

In my experience, the best course of action is to fob off the chatbot with non-committal and evasive answers until it tires and hands you over to a real live customer service advisor, who will most likely delay and obfuscate in the same manner as the chatbot until they also succumb to ennui, and then decide to engage with your problem. You have to be persistent, I'm afraid.

[eighthobstruction]

....thank you....