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Vent: a guy at the Sacramento library watched me type my password and read it back to me
Two weeks ago I was at the public library on I Street in Sacramento finishing up some insurance forms on one of their computers, and a guy in his 60s sat down at the machine right next to mine. When I logged into my email, I typed my password at normal speed, the way I always do at home, and I noticed him glancing over. A minute later he leaned over and said, plain as day, "that's a good one, but you should add a number to the end." I just stared at him. He had watched my fingers and memorized the whole thing, then told me out loud like he was doing me a favor. I changed that password that night and turned on two step verification for everything, but the part that bugs me is I had been doing that at libraries for years without thinking twice. Now I keep a cheap privacy screen in my bag and use a password manager so I never type anything in the open. Has anyone else had a stranger call out their login like that, and how do you handle typing in public spots without covering the whole keyboard with your hand?
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felix_miller501mo ago
Does anyone else type their password like they're swatting a fly off the keyboard? I worked at a call center for a few years and got so used to people looking over my shoulder that my hands basically do their own little panic dance now. The funny part is I've typo'd my own password so many times while half-covering it that I locked myself out of my bank once and had to call in anyway. These days I just keep my stuff on a password manager and type the master one with my left hand while my right hand holds a book over it, which looks insane but nobody has guessed it yet.
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