Weak Passwords and Old People PSA

[Ravager]

Today I found out that the password to my Dad's email was the name of his 3 kids... and that's it. This was after I told him to change it to something stronger because he got a message a few days ago from his provider saying his old password was compromised. So, given all the recent hacks and information dumps of companies like T-Mobile, I'd encourage everyone here to both update their own security to have completely random passwords, multi-factor authentication (preferably email and not a phone number) and do the same for your parents who may not be so tech and security savvy.

My Dad's not a stupid man, he's just ignorant of how easy it is to hack weak security. It was kind of eye opening how naive he was when it came to passwords and so I pass this on in hopes it helps some other folks prevent some awful things from happening to the people they care about.

[Jibartik]

haha I feel you bro

Advanced boomers will at least have Onepass even though it's still filled with passphrases like "cat1949" and "veteran67"

[Baler]

The more characters, the better
A mixture of both uppercase and lowercase letters
A mixture of letters and numbers
Inclusion of at least one special character, e.g., ! @ # ? ]

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All of my passwords are max length random characters including but not limited to the following above.

Old folks hate this style of password but it is Required.

ps. Usernames are never secure.

edit: https://www.privacytools.io/software/passwords/

Youtube Video : EDWARD SNOWDEN ON SECURE PASSWORDS (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuaNGOx4ZSc)
an 8 character password, It can take less than a second for a computer to go through the possibilities and figure it out.

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example of 16 character passwords: DO NOT USE THESE
5Sun8~J?VF31k$Xy
b2d3m=yhq/s1PRj@
r&x^Nf2hwUm/V?8d

[Jibartik]

I follow snowdens advice, passphrases > passwords.

It's harder for a quantum computer to come up with

CowsListenToBowieByMoonlightInThe1920s

than @#KL$M@OBV*(L@#N@<UIN

And easier to remember, and type :)

Although I only have heard him say that once so I could be dead wrong, dont listen to me.

[Ravager]

I use https://www.random.org/passwords/ and make the password as complicated and long as the service will allow (some don't use certain characters but very few these days).

[Baler]

Repeated characters especially in short length, reduce security.
So let's say you have two capital Z's in a password, you're actually reducing your security.

If your password contains personal life information, like kids names or pet names.
It's less secure.

If you use the same password in more than 1 place.
It's NOT secure. You are putting your faith in those places to have protection on their end against attacks on their system. One house falls, all others will too.

[Danth]

....And then, at the end, you suffer identity theft anyway because the place you did business with kept your personal info in an unsecured plain text file. This actually happened to the wife years ago.

I don't worry overmuch about my passwords. Instead I do as little online business as possible, sign up for the fewest things possible, and never use the same computer for online transactions as I use for general browsing. I regard that as the best I can do.

Danth

[Nocht]

I have a really good system for generating passwords that are impossible to crack.

But I can't share the method with you guys because it would compromise its effectiveness.

[Ooloo]

Look up random phrases from the instruction booklet of the game astynax. This is the most secure password method.

[Baler]

I have a really good system for generating passwords that are impossible to crack.

But I can't share the method with you guys because it would compromise its effectiveness.

So there is some seriousness here.

If someone had access to a bunch of your passwords that were generated. They could potentially crack the algorithm used to generate those passwords. Which makes it far far easier to break any future passwords created by that algorithm.

[Ravager]

....And then, at the end, you suffer identity theft anyway because the place you did business with kept your personal info in an unsecured plain text file. This actually happened to the wife years ago.

I don't worry overmuch about my passwords. Instead I do as little online business as possible, sign up for the fewest things possible, and never use the same computer for online transactions as I use for general browsing. I regard that as the best I can do.

Danth

Probably not a bad policy, but still at the least I'd make the passwords as secure as possible, because that's just a little better than nothing and hackers mostly get the low hanging fruit and all. Plus it costs literally nothing to have a strong password.

[Jimjam]

I stilly fondly remember my first pet. Password1234! was such a good dog.

[Whale biologist]

If they hack google it's all done anyway, no big deal.

[Ravager]

I stilly fondly remember my first pet. Password1234! was such a good dog.

lol