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I am not a security person, but I can't help but wonder where the advice of not writing things down comes from? I think my wife's password book on her desk is a
by throwaway9870 4y ago
I am not a security person, but I can't help but wonder where the advice of not writing things down comes from? I think my wife's password book on her desk is a lot more safe than most computer experts.
- cma 4y agoSomeone kept theirs in their wallet, and their passphrase showed up on a publicly released police body cam the other day when their insurance was checked or something.
- andrewstuart 4y agoSay your wife is a well known Bitcoin billionaire. And your wife bought something from my eBay store. Now I have your home address. And if I am a ruthless character then I quietly break into your house one day with th3e objective of leaving no sign I was ever there. Search for written down passwords, take a photo, leave.
- nemo44x 4y agoWhy make it so complex? Just do a title search online and you’ll get access to their address if they own a home.
- andrewstuart 4y agoOf course its obvious there's many ways to get someone's address. The point is that companies put vast effort into digital security but in many cases it's easily compromised by going to the home of the person that is the hacking target.
- recuter 4y agoIf they schlep to your house and successfully break in they might as well tie you up and beat the password and whatever info they need out of you. Especially if your parents accidentally left you home alone..
- rblatz 4y agoUnless they own it in a trust.
- mjr00 4y agoOkay, so assuming you get past this theoretical billionaire's physical security (at a minimum gated fences and an alarm system; if they're actually a billionaire, probably 24/7 armed private security as well) and into their mansion, how long do you think it would take you to search their 7 bedroom 10000 square foot mansion for these written down passwords which you have no information as to whether they even exist?
- andrewstuart 4y agoYou get Tom Cruise to do the job of course.
- mk89 4y agoAhahaha
- onlyrealcuzzo 4y agoIf you're going to rob a billionaire, you're probably not doing it cartoon style. You'd find a legit way into the house.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- HL33tibCe7 4y agoYou get hired as a cleaner
- zikduruqe 4y agoSo the "Live, Laugh, Love" sticker on the kitchen wall isn't safe? /s
- danfoxley 4y agoHilarious
- rileymat2 4y agoIt comes from the threat model, having a password book on your desk in a cubicle is absolutely not secure. On a desk at home? It is marginal, certainly a burglary is a low frequency event, but we also have events like fire that make it insecure in other ways.
- jeroenhd 4y agoPassword books are basically physical password managers. The only problem I have with them is that the passwords in most password books I've seen aren't very creative or random. As long as you write down randomly generated passwords instead of permutations of the names of your kids/pets/parents, I don't know what people are panicking about. The perfect password book is combined with a word you remember but don't write down as a pepper, but I doubt it's much of a problem in practice; it takes one leak of an u hashed password to break the code. I think for many the risk of someone breaking in and stealing your password book is much smaller than the risk of a centralised password manager getting hacked (LastPass and friends).
- kube-system 4y agoThat advice mostly originates from security folks working in workplace environments, where passwords that are written down may be visible to people who are threat vectors.
- dan-robertson 4y agoI think it’s reasonable advice for most people. The alternative is usually having a simpler password which is worse if your threat model is ‘hashed password shows up in big breach’. If your threat model is ‘someone turns up to your house to get your password’ your worry should not be theft of the paper.
- im3w1l 4y agoThe biggest threat with this scheme is you. After that your kids, your house keeper, your friends and visitors.