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Honestly, the number of people who still use 'password123' is wild to me.
Tbh, I was helping my cousin set up his new smart thermostat last week and he just typed that in for the admin password. I asked him about it and he said, 'It's easy to remember.' Ngl, I facepalmed. That's like leaving your front door key under the mat with a sign. I see it all the time with other stuff too, like people's home wifi networks. It matters because these are the first things a basic script tries, and if your thermostat or router gets owned, someone could mess with your whole house. I only know this because I got locked out of my own router once after a weird login attempt and had to reset it, which took an hour. Has anyone else had to talk a friend or family member out of using a terrible password recently?
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barnes.shane1mo ago
Oh man, same! My dad's wifi password was literally just our street address for years. I finally got him to change it after his printer started acting weird.
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samward1mo ago
How do you even start that talk without sounding like you're scolding them? I felt the same way when I saw my aunt's wifi password written on a sticky note stuck to her monitor. That story from @barnes.shane about the street address is way too real, it's like people don't see their own house as a target. It's so frustrating because you just want them to be safe, but they think you're making a big deal over nothing until something actually goes wrong.
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black.jordan21d ago
Start by showing them something simple that went wrong for you. I told my mom about the time I got a weird email because I used an easy password. Then I asked if I could help her set up a password manager, framing it as a way to never forget a password again. It worked because it felt like help, not a lecture. That approach might work for your aunt too, @samward, since the sticky note is clearly about convenience. People get defensive if you just tell them they're wrong, but they'll listen if you solve the problem they actually have, like forgetting passwords.
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