My cousin told me to use the same password for everything because it's easier to remember... yeah, that was bad advice.

4 comments

4 Comments

That "bad advice" gets blown way out of proportion. Most people aren't high profile targets. If you remember one good password, you're already safer than using simple ones everywhere.

stella1211mo ago

Feel your pain, that's exactly how my brain works too.

finley_shah641mo ago

Yeah, and then one site gets hacked and suddenly your email, bank, and netflix are all gone. @stella121 gets it, our brains want the easy way out. I had a friend who used their dog's name for everything. Their instagram got popped and someone drained their paypal because they used the same login. It's not about being a target, it's about basic math. If you reuse a password, a breach at some random forum turns into a master key for your whole life.

sean_barnes247d ago

@carter.cora I gotta push back on that a little, because the math doesn't care who you are. A single breach at a random site you signed up for years ago gives hackers your email and password combo. Then they run that against every major service in minutes with automated tools. You don't have to be famous or rich for that to work, you just have to be lazy once. The risk scales up with how many accounts you reuse that password on, not with how important you think you are. Most people don't even know how many old accounts they have floating around out there with their info. So yeah, one good password is better than one weak one, but sharing it across everything is still basically handing over the keys.

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