Thank you so much everyone.
Eliza, yes, it is amazing. Between the passwords and the PINs, it is so hard to keep track.

I have been too embarrassed to admit it, but I have a very long time set on my computer before it times out (Ugh Glory ! ) AND I keep ( kept ) a little address book in the drawer by it with all my passwords. Though I had the same password for the three accounts I use most ( iCloud, Evernote, and YLF ). AND the password was pretty easy. I really have been stupid. If someone broke into the house and found the address book it would be very, very bad.

But it is so bizarre..I was home the entire time and in and out of the office where the desktop is.

I think that I am just going to come out and ask. This is someone who is like family to me.

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all the tips on security.

( Ana, a big thanks to you on those articles. )

ETA Janet, your reaction kind of mimicked mine after Greg told me that someone had used my Evernote email to set up an account. I was so confused. I said , why on earth would someone want to get into my Evernote account ? All I have are notes on food, clothing, and a to do list I will never finish. How boring !!!!

Thanks for all the tips, everyone, and I'm glad you didn't mind me derailing the intent fo your original message, Isabel.

Isabelle, don't be embarrassed, my "system" for passwords is very similar to yours! And I never change them! Who has time to remember all the passwords a household needs!?! I'm definitely looking at these articles.

Long-ago my kids' daycare banned the word, "stupid", so let's not call ourselves that for our password "system". Let's just say we were "silly".

Doesn't that sound better?

Isis, thank you, I have been very , very silly !! LOL.

And this thread wasn't derailed at all. It turned into a very useful and practical discussion. That is why I LOVE YLF, despite the fact that my alter ego seems to think everyone here is a "loser"....

Without these suggestions, I might have thought up an even "sillier" system.

I sort of wish I'd caught the alter-ego threads. Did someone post as you and call everybody losers! No wonder no one thought it was you!!!!

It's sort of funny if it wasn't so mean!

Gosh. That's violating. How horrible. What a crazy thing for someone to do. I'm so sorry sweetie this happened to you!

Isabel, I am so sorry you were the victim of this so-called friend's immaturity. The lovely part of this whole incident is that, as someone already pointed out, due to the wise, gracious tone of YLF, we all knew that it was NOT you!!! How amazing and special is that! So once again, thanks to Angie, Greg and Inge for providing a very special home for all of us. Now let's all get going on those password changes!

O.M.G! I am SO sorry this happened to you, and kudos to Greg and Mochi for all their help.... NO way would anyone who knew you believed you would send such rude posts....it is so scary, I'm glad you are taking steps to protect yourself...I am terribly guilty of using the same, easy passwords far too often. I will need to change that. (((hugs)))

we knew it was n't you <3

This is a great example of how being "hacked" is often not very high tech at all, and sometimes more close to home.

BTW, one tool that I find very useful is 1Password: https://agilebits.com/onepassword

Like Ceit, I have a recipe for generating passwords to some sites that don't have important personal info. But for banking sites and some business related things I use 1Password to generate strong passwords. These are very long and impossible to remember, but I think the security makes the inconvenience worthwhile.

Also be careful with logins that also give access to many other things. An example of this for me is the Google identity that also logs me into many other things. I use a strong password for this one too.

Here's a wikipedia page on password strength: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password_strength

Greg, how about moving this info to a separate thread? There's a lot of useful info in one place, but hidden deep inside the thread that some people may not even visit.

Or even blog post? Just an idea.

Funny that Greg posted about "low tech" ...I have caught the culprit and it was REALLY low tech. Thank you so much for the security tips.

I am starting another thread. And how am I joining the CIA as a result.