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I wonder how much passwords like "lastfm", "music" and "abcdefg123" are an indication of people just being bad with security, as opposed to people just not givi

by tomp 10y ago

I wonder how much passwords like "lastfm", "music" and "abcdefg123" are an indication of people just being bad with security, as opposed to people just not giving a damn... Amid the overflow of trivial sites requiring more and more login details, is there really a value in having strong passwords? Personally, I mostly don't care; I have strong passwords for important sites (banks, online stores that have my credit card details), but for the rest of logins, I use pretty trivial passwords - if someone "steals" my account, I'll just create another one!

paulddraper 10y ago
But what if they post snarky comments as you on HN?
- antoineMoPa 10y ago
  HN is an important site I guess.
- totony 10y ago
  That would be disastrous.
  - SNvD7vEJ 10y ago
    na, no problem. 'tomp2' is still available
- tomp 10y ago
  I'll just link back to this comment and claim my account was hacked...
LeoPanthera 10y ago
But you are the exception. The problem is not really weak passwords, it's re-used passwords. A lot of people just use one password and they use it everywhere, so as soon as it gets cracked once, their accounts can be compromised all over the place. The best thing I ever did for my parents was teach them to use different passwords everywhere. Against conventional wisdom, I get them to write them down in a book, because for them, keeping a book secure is much easier than knowing what to do to keep their computers secure. We already know how to keep physical objects reasonably secure, we do it every day with our credit cards, passports, jewelry etc.
JoshTriplett 10y ago
Exactly. When a random site demands that you create an account to continue, you might create a throw-away account that you don't expect to reuse. Worse yet, some such sites intentionally break pasting into the password field, making it a pain to paste in a randomly generated password.
- LeoPanthera 10y ago
  > some such sites intentionally break pasting into the password field You can fix that with a bookmarklet to re-enable pasting. var inputs = document.getElementsByTagName('input'); for (var i=0; i < inputs.length; i++) { if (inputs[i].getAttribute('type').toLowerCase() === 'password') { inputs[i].setAttribute('onpaste', ''); } } (Tested with desktop Safari, no idea about other browsers.)
Myrmornis 10y ago
Exactly. Part of the annoyance of passwords is due to the loss of perspective that comes with running a business, SAAS offering etc: you, the owner, may think it's a big deal, but if there are no credit cards involved, the databases of most websites don't contain anything the users really care about. In fact the most sensitive thing they probably hold is the password / hash thereof, because they force people (inappropriately) to use strong and therefore valuable passwords.
KayL 10y ago
Yes. I do the same way. I have few set of password and used for different type of sites

by tomp 10y ago

paulddraper 10y ago

But what if they post snarky comments as you on HN?

antoineMoPa 10y ago
HN is an important site I guess.
totony 10y ago
That would be disastrous.
- SNvD7vEJ 10y ago
  na, no problem. 'tomp2' is still available
tomp 10y ago
I'll just link back to this comment and claim my account was hacked...

LeoPanthera 10y ago

But you are the exception. The problem is not really weak passwords, it's re-used passwords. A lot of people just use one password and they use it everywhere, so as soon as it gets cracked once, their accounts can be compromised all over the place. The best thing I ever did for my parents was teach them to use different passwords everywhere. Against conventional wisdom, I get them to write them down in a book, because for them, keeping a book secure is much easier than knowing what to do to keep their computers secure. We already know how to keep physical objects reasonably secure, we do it every day with our credit cards, passports, jewelry etc.

JoshTriplett 10y ago

Exactly. When a random site demands that you create an account to continue, you might create a throw-away account that you don't expect to reuse. Worse yet, some such sites intentionally break pasting into the password field, making it a pain to paste in a randomly generated password.

LeoPanthera 10y ago
> some such sites intentionally break pasting into the password field You can fix that with a bookmarklet to re-enable pasting. var inputs = document.getElementsByTagName('input'); for (var i=0; i < inputs.length; i++) { if (inputs[i].getAttribute('type').toLowerCase() === 'password') { inputs[i].setAttribute('onpaste', ''); } } (Tested with desktop Safari, no idea about other browsers.)

Myrmornis 10y ago

Exactly. Part of the annoyance of passwords is due to the loss of perspective that comes with running a business, SAAS offering etc: you, the owner, may think it's a big deal, but if there are no credit cards involved, the databases of most websites don't contain anything the users really care about. In fact the most sensitive thing they probably hold is the password / hash thereof, because they force people (inappropriately) to use strong and therefore valuable passwords.

KayL 10y ago

Yes. I do the same way. I have few set of password and used for different type of sites