TIL my friend's 'password123' approach is way worse than my password manager

He spent 45 minutes locked out of his email after a simple phishing test, while my manager auto-filled everything in seconds. What's the weirdest password fail you've seen a friend have?

4 comments

4 Comments

ben_lewis2mo ago

My buddy used "password" as his actual password. For his work computer. IT sent a company-wide email about weak passwords and he was the example they used. He had to explain it to his boss.

vera1952mo ago

My cousin used his dog's name and the year he was born for everything. I watched him get locked out of his own bank account because he forgot which of his three dogs he picked. In my experience, people hate the idea of a password manager until they have to reset ten accounts at once. I finally got him to use one by setting it up on his phone myself. It took maybe twenty minutes and now he never has to remember those easy to guess combos.

hugos462mo ago

Set it up for my mom too after she kept forgetting her "secret" answers.

aaron_mitchell1mo ago

That hits close to home. My sister was the same way with her security questions. She kept picking answers she thought were clever but then could never remember which variation she used. I spent three hours on the phone with her bank once helping her reset everything. The whole "what street did you grow up on" thing is a mess when you've lived in five different houses before age 12. @ben_lewis mentioned that poor guy with "password" as his password. That's brutal but honestly not surprising. People get so defensive about their "system" until it fails them hard. Then they act like password managers are some kind of magic they should have been using all along. It's good you helped your mom. Older folks especially get the short end of the stick with security questions. My mom still uses her maiden name but spelled backwards because she read that tip in a magazine in 1998. It works for her but drives me crazy trying to help her log in anywhere.