Has The Internet Out-Lived Its Usefulness?

[LewPaper]

On two occasions recently I was asked to supply a password, one to save a quote for car insurance and again when trying to gain access to a shopping site. Not ANY password, one that had to contain at least two of this, two of those, a couple of symbols and a few numbers. I felt like writing to suggest they give me the password they'd like me to use and I'll use it.
This can only be thought up by some primary school dropout who, proud to be asked to do something well out of their intellectual level decided on a course of action even more stringent than that of the CIA if only to cover their backs.
Who CARES if my insurance quote becomes common knowledge and will I ever need my passport to wander into Boots for a quick look around?
We're being strangled by ever-more complicated access codes for no good reason other than stupidity.

[Canary42]

I struggle to understand how your narrative supports the question, to which my answer is NO.

[woofgang]

well if the majority of people agree with you then they will stop using those websites and the companies will suffer....I am not sure how that means that the internet has outlived its usefulness though?

[Peter Pedant]

Lew Lew - calm down - it is not the end of the world

people use 1234 over and over again, and it may be for their banking details - always worth a punt. Having been cloned and lived thro it ( a pain I have to say ) I put up with things like that....

[ummmm]

For unimportant sites I use the same password.

[Peter Pedant]

yeah I noticed the argument didnt support the conclusion and so was a non-sequitur - however I have read a lot of AOG today and just thought o well another one wont enlarge the huge pile

Oddly enough when I was telling a clerk this week I had been cloned I then mused about what we did before the internet .... so clearly the answer for me is no

[bibblebub]

Same here for unimportant sites - I just use a simple password for various sites and things about which I'm not bothered. Anyone who goes to the bother of cracking my password for such sites is going to be mightily disappointed with what they find when they log in.

[SlackAlice]

If you think the idea of using a difficult password is declaring the Internet outdated and obsolete, then you are quite at liberty not to use it.

[hc4361]

Car insurance quotes should have a strong password, surely. Anyone hacking in to it will get your full name and address and date of birth as well as your phone number.

I use LastPass which generates very strong passwords and stores them securely.

[Canary42]

I think that some of you who are suggesting simple passwrods (1234) are missing the point of Lewpaper's narrative - his beef seems to be about thse sites which insist on certain minimum requirements like more than 10 characters, mixed case, numeric, symbols, etc etc.

[maggiebee]

Friend of mine says she always uses the initial letters of favourite songs plus the year of her birth: eg The Beatles: I Want to Hold Your Hand would be IWTHYH1953

[LewPaper]

With respect I think most of you are missing my point. It's obvious passwords are a necessary evil but those of such severity are just OTT for the examples I mentioned - and the internet is still in its infancy!

[KARL]

I sympathise with the poster's irritation, password requirements are proliferating and rising inexorably and increasingly they are a real hindrance and a pain if one just wants to do something one finds of low significance. Frankly, I can't think of any reason why I should hide my telephone number and/or address because both are readily available through at least two channels.

Only yesterday I was logging onto a site where my password was rejected at least three times before finally being rejected - I found out that they have switched to at the outset (new users) ask for the multi/mixed case/character passwords, so instead of inviting me to change my password they simply rejected the old one for a bit until I had persisted long enough. To me this is not acceptable - I am keeping my old password because even though non-compliant with the latest ideology it is, in my opinion, so unlikely to be cracked.

[jno]

probably because if they insist on maximum security then their website is less likely to be hacked? If it got out that hackers had got into the site, it would be quite likely to affect business.

[LewPaper]

But jno, I only wanted to enter the site to see what was available. Where on earth did your assumption of hacking come into it? It was the technological equivalent of walking to M&S.

[jno]

I didn't mean you were hacking. But if actual hackers did get in it might mean they had access to the details of anyone who'd used their site, and while you may not mind, others might be upset. Sites generally think it's important to assure customers, or even potential customers, that all their data is secure.

I'm only guessing, I can't read their minds. But I do know that companies get panicky about internet security.

[LewPaper]

I'm afraid I still don't understand your point. Hackers would find their own way in through the back door, in a way that's totally beyond passwords, possible buyers like me who use the front door should be welcomed not prevented.

[woofgang]

same answer, if you don't like the way a site is organised then don't use it.

[LewPaper]

Obviously, but it doesn't preclude comment

[Maydup]

You don't have to give a password to walk through the door Lewpaper, but once you ask for a quote and release your personal details, the companies quite rightly offer to protect that information for you.

If you don't beleive in it all, either go back to the High Street, or use Password124Lew and see what happens next.

[LewPaper]

Maydup You either didn't read my post correctly or decided to ignore it. I DID have to offer a password to enter the site which is what I found so inexplicable, thus this posting.