Showerthought: People still think a strong password is enough

I was helping a friend set up their new laptop, and they were so proud of their 'unbreakable' 12 character password. It made me think back to maybe 2015, when that was the main advice. Now, if you aren't using a password manager and turning on two-factor authentication, you're basically leaving your front door unlocked. I read a report that said over 80% of breaches involve stolen or weak passwords. That single password, no matter how clever, just doesn't cut it anymore. What's the one basic security step you see people skipping most often?

2 comments

2 Comments

brookefox1mo ago

The biggest blind spot I see is people not checking their login activity. Your password can be perfect and 2FA on, but if you don't look at the "recent devices" list you'd never know someone in another country got in. My cousin had a Netflix account she only used on her TV, but the logins showed attempts from Vietnam and Brazil. She never got a weird email about it. You have to actually go look sometimes.

jesse_west1mo ago

Yikes, @brookefox, that's a scary thought.