this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2024
599 points (96.6% liked)

Privacy

31974 readers
248 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

Chat rooms

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

It is truly upsetting to see how few people use password managers. I have witnessed people who always use the same password (and even tell me what it is), people who try to login to accounts but constantly can't remember which credentials they used, people who store all of their passwords on a text file on their desktop, people who use a password manager but store the master password on Discord, entire tech sectors in companies locked to LastPass, and so much more. One person even told me they were upset that websites wouldn't tell you password requirements after you create your account, and so they screenshot the requirements every time so they could remember which characters to add to their reused password.

Use a password manager. Whatever solution you think you can come up with is most likely not secure. Computers store a lot of temporary files in places you might not even know how to check, so don't just stick it in a text file. Use a properly made password manager, such as Bitwarden or KeePassXC. They're not going to steal your passwords. Store your master password in a safe place or use a passphrase that you can remember. Even using your browser's password storage is better than nothing. Don't reuse passwords, use long randomly generated ones.

It's free, it's convenient, it takes a few minutes to set up, and its a massive boost in security. No needing to remember passwords. No needing to come up with new passwords. No manually typing passwords. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but if even one of you decides to use a password manager after this then it's an easy win.

Please, don't wait. If you aren't using a password manager right now, take a few minutes. You'll thank yourself later.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

But yes, there is an unrelated frustration where password requirements aren't presented upfront.

And pinnacle of this frustration is "password too long"... Talk about security

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (2 children)

which doesn't make sense as a requirement, as the passwords themselves are not even (supposed to be) stored

limits of 128+ characters? Sure.

Limits of 30, 20, 18, or 16 as I've seen in many places? I suddenly don't trust your website.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Do you want to know the kicker? There are banks (yes, you heard me right) that straight up don't allow more than 20 chars. 20!!! And they say you got to use the app for X things because it's secure and shit (e.g.: use the app to 2FA credit card transactions). Meanwhile, does not allow you to add a yubikey for Fido authentication

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Steam and Spotify are notorious for this.