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?

2 comments

2 Comments

barnes.shane19d 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.

samward18d 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.