[jacquej]

Well, I use that approach ( a combination of numbers/caps/phrases) with all my various passwords, but was under the impression that anything I conjured up could be grabbed by the “hack”.

Am I wrong?

I am old enough to remember life before the internet. Got along without it before I met it, and could get along without it now.

If it comes to that, of course. But think of the hit on the economy?

My suspicious mind does wander into “tin-foil fashion accessories” from time to time, and is now is wondering if this is just the preamble to a .gov excuse to take it all over.

I really don’t care at this point. They will ultimately fail, for they forget that we are not as stupid as they think, and actually can find myriad creative ways around them, if we are clever and quiet.

[Swordmaker]

Jacques, Your computer, iPhone, and iPad are safe. The Heartbleed exploit cannot invade them to read your memory as it can read vulnerable systems. The fear it can read your passwords from the server side is overblown as most servers actually do not hold your actual password in memory. They have instead a "hashtag" of your password. A representation created by an algorithm that is recreated each time you log in and enter your password—at which time the algorithm recreates the hashtag, compares the two, confirms a match, and allows you entry. If the Heartbleed hacker gets your username and corresponding hashtag, the algorithm will create something that will not match and your access is safe.

If they DON'T use hashtags, then, yes, there could be a problem. . . but all commercial sites do.

The problem with using password generators is they come up with excellent, hard-to-hack secure, but impossible to memorize passwords. Using a silly, inane nonsense phrase of disconnected but seemingly normal words that COULD mean something is much easier, but equally secure.

myALIGATORisafluffy1

Funny, memorable, secure