c/cybersecurity-tips

I wasted $200 on a password manager vault that locked me out

Bought a lifetime license for some obscure password manager back in 2019 and their server went under last month with no backup export option. Has anyone else lost money on a security tool that just disappeared overnight?

Rant: Everyone pushes password managers but my $15 notebook works better for me

After getting locked out of my LastPass account for 2 hours during a client call, I bought a $15 composition notebook from Target and wrote down every login by hand, and now I don't trust the cloud with my passwords at all has anyone else gone back to paper.

That password manager switch I kept putting off finally clicked after my email got hit

I was always a 'just use the same password with a number at the end' guy for years. Last month my personal email got into a data breach from some old forum I used back in 2017, and someone tried logging into my PayPal from Vietnam. That finally got me to switch to Bitwarden, and honestly, setting it up took maybe 20 minutes. Has anyone else had a close call that finally made them change their habits?

Old timer at the coffee shop told me my password habits were outdated

I was logging into my bank on my phone at this little diner off Highway 9. This guy, must have been 70, just shakes his head and says 'you still using the same password from 2015?' He was right. I had been cycling three passwords for everything. Made me think about how 2FA and password managers are the norm now. Anyone else get called out by a stranger and actually appreciate it?

Public wifi vpn trick that actually saved my banking info

Was at a Starbucks in downtown Austin last month. Needed to pay a bill. Their free wifi was slow and janky. Figured a vpn would just make it worse. But I tried ProtonVPN free tier on a whim. Noticed the network traffic dropped from 15 open connections to just 2 in my firewall log. Never saw that before. Anyone else check their connection counts with and without a vpn?

My dad's old IT friend swore by sticky notes for passwords

He told me to write my passwords on yellow sticky notes and stick them under my keyboard. I laughed at him, said that's the worst security advice ever. Then I locked myself out of my bank account three times in one month. Reset password, forgot it again, locked out for 24 hours. Finally tried his method out of desperation. Been smooth sailing for 8 months now with zero lockouts. Anyone else got a 'bad' security tip that actually saved them?

Saw a massive difference in my login alerts after just 3 days of running a SIEM

I set up a free Security Onion instance on an old Dell OptiPlex in my basement last Tuesday. Before that, I had no idea how many bots were hitting my home server from random IPs in China and Brazil. After 72 hours, I counted over 2000 failed SSH attempts that my router firewall was just silently letting through. Has anyone else been shocked by what they found after setting up basic monitoring at home?

That old sysadmin in St. Louis told me to never use the same password twice and I rolled my eyes until I got hit with a credential stuffing attack 3 years later

Lost access to my email, bank, and two social media accounts in one afternoon because I reused the same password across everything, and it took me 6 weeks to claw them all back, so has anyone else had to rebuild from a compromise like that?

Hit 100 failed login attempts on my home router in one day

I checked my router logs last Tuesday after my internet felt sluggish and saw 103 failed login attempts in a single afternoon from some IP in Russia. Turns out my admin password was still 'admin123' from when the plumber crew set it up 4 years ago. Anyone else ever get a wake-up call from just glancing at their logs?

Finally got locked out of my own email and the recovery trick nobody tells you

I spent 2 hours on hold with support before I realized I could just log in through an old browser session I had saved on my work laptop from 6 months ago, so has anyone else found a random login still active that saved their skin?

Old sysadmin told me to stop using the same password for everything and I blew him off for 6 months until my email got hijacked last Thursday

Had to spend 3 hours on the phone with support and change every single account I own because I figured 'nobody would want my boring accounts' and that guy was right, has anyone else had that wake up call come out of nowhere?

Got phished through a fake Outlook login page at work

Clicked a link in an email that looked legit from IT. Typed my password before I realized the URL was off by one letter. Anyone else almost fall for something that looked that real?

Hit 63 reused passwords before I stopped counting

Ran a password check on my accounts last night. 63 of them shared the same four passwords. That's just asking for trouble if one site gets hacked. How often do you guys actually rotate your logins?

TIL most people still use "password123" for their work accounts

I work IT at a small office in Halifax with about 40 people. Last month I ran a weak password audit after a phishing scare. Turns out 12 of them had passwords that could be cracked in under 2 seconds. One guy used his dog's name from 2004. I get that remembering 15 different logins is annoying, but a password manager takes 10 minutes to set up. Has anyone else run a quick check on their coworkers and been surprised at how bad it gets?

That free password manager I ignored for 2 years finally made me switch after a data breach

I always thought Bitwarden was just a bare bones option compared to the paid ones, but when LastPass had that breach last year I finally tried it out. It synced all my logins across devices without any hassle and the autofill works faster than what I was using. Anyone else been burned by a paid service and switched to a free alternative?

Paid $120 for a 'cybersecurity audit' that turned out to be a guy in his basement running free tools

So I got spooked by a phishing email last month and found this service online promising a full security scan of my home network for $120. Sounded legit, they even had a fancy website with testimonials. After paying, they sent me a report that literally just listed my router model and said my password was 'too common'. I googled one of the tools they mentioned and it's a free app anyone can download. The guy's phone number on the invoice led to a pizza shop in Phoenix. Has anyone else fallen for one of these fake audit scams or am I just the unlucky one?

Finally got two-factor authentication set up after years of procrastinating

I kept putting off turning on 2FA for my main email account for probably 3 years. Last week, someone tried logging in from Nigeria and Google blocked it because I finally had an authenticator app set up. It took me maybe 10 minutes total to install Authy and scan the code. Has anyone else waited way too long to do something simple like this and regretted it?

Tried that 'use a different password for every site' advice for a week and lost my mind

I set up a password manager last Monday and locked myself out of my own email twice in one day because I kept forgetting to copy the generated password. Has anyone else had this kind of trouble with password managers or am I just doing it wrong?

Changed my mind about password managers after watching my neighbor get hacked

I used to keep all my passwords in a notebook next to my computer. Figured it was safer than trusting some app with that information. Then my neighbor across the street in Phoenix had his email and bank accounts compromised because he reused the same password everywhere. He showed me how long it took to clean up the mess and I spent the next weekend setting up Bitwarden on all my devices. Has anyone here switched back to paper after trying a manager?

Got hit with ransomware on a Tuesday. Ruined my whole workflow.

Clicked a PDF from a client's email. Thought it was normal. Next thing I know, every file on my desktop was renamed to .encrypted. Had to spend 3 days restoring from a backup I kept on an external drive. The note demanded $500 in Bitcoin. Anyone else run into fake invoice attachments lately?

My dad's 2-minute comment made me ditch password managers

I was telling my dad about my password manager setup at dinner last week, and he just said 'what happens if that company gets hacked?' I brushed it off at first, but then I read about that LastPass breach from 2022 where 25 million users had their vaults compromised. Now I'm using a physical notebook for my passwords instead, which feels weird but safer somehow. Has anyone else gone back to analog methods after a breach scare?

I thought 2FA was overkill until last Tuesday

Honestly, I used to roll my eyes at anyone pushing two-factor authentication. Thought it was just a hassle for no reason. Then someone got into my email because my password was in a breach I didn't even know about. They tried to reset my bank password and everything. What finally convinced you guys to turn it on?

Saw a guy at a coffee shop use a password manager on public wifi and it hit me how far we've come

I'm sitting at this little place in Nashville last week, getting some work done, and this dude next to me starts typing his master password into a browser extension. Ngl, it took me back to like 2010 when everyone was still using 'password123' and nobody thought twice about logging into their bank on an open network. Tbh I used to be that guy too. Now I have a password manager and a VPN and I still get a little paranoid. Anyone else remember the days when you'd just save passwords in a text file called 'passwords.doc'?

TIL my old router had 14 devices on the guest network I forgot about

Caught my neighbor using my wifi to stream Netflix

I noticed my internet got super slow around 8pm every night for like 2 weeks straight. Checked my router logs and saw a device I didn't recognize connected up in Portland where I live. How do you guys usually lock down your home network without making it a hassle for guests?