While it was impressive to see how rapidly Internet giants and other denizens took steps to close the gaping hole in security caused by a long-existing bug in OpenSSL (a key piece of software that is used on servers to protect people’s privacy), this event reminds us once again how weak a safeguard our passwords are. Even the giants of the Internet, with their large resources and strong motivation to make sure that all is secure, were affected. And during the first few days a lot of companies claimed that they had fixed whatever weaknesses they had, but disinterested third parties who checked found the those weaknesses had NOT been fixed. For millions of people who had numerous passwords (the owner of Technology Bloopers has over 100 passwords), it must have been a nightmare to figure out what was going on, whose sites were secure, which passwords urgently needed to be changed, and what to change them to. Shouldn’t we get a lot more vocal about replacing this antiquated and ineffective system with something modern, secure, and easy to use?