Can we talk about how much simpler password security used to be?

I was at a coffee shop last week in Austin and overheard a guy telling his friend he uses the same password for everything because 'nobody wants to steal his boring life'. It got me thinking about how I used to do the same thing back in like 2010. I remember my old work password was literally 'password123' and nobody cared. Now I gotta remember 50 different passwords, use a manager app, and do two-factor authentication for my email. I think the wildest part is that phishing emails look way more real now too, my grandma almost fell for one that looked exactly like her bank. Has anyone else noticed how much harder it is to stay secure without going crazy with all these tools?

2 comments

2 Comments

rosepark13d agoMost Upvoted

Miss me with that boring life stuff, that guy is ASKING to get hacked. I swear people forget how annoying it is to recover a stolen email or bank account until it happens to them. Two factor is a pain but it sure beats changing all your passwords at 2am while panicking. The phishing emails are getting scary good too, my mom almost clicked one that had her real address and everything. It's like we traded simple passwords for a whole second job of managing security.

andrew_baker913d ago

I mean I get it but I think people oversell how often this stuff actually goes wrong. If you're not clicking random links in emails from "your bank" and your password isn't "password123", you're probably fine without the paranoia.