Caught my mom using 'Password123' for her bank account last week

I was helping her set up a new laptop in Phoenix and she pulled out a sticky note with all her passwords written in plain sight. She had the same login for her email, her bank, and her Netflix account. I spent 2 hours showing her how a password manager works and she still thinks I'm being paranoid. Has anyone else had to basically force their parents to use 2 factor authentication?

2 comments

2 Comments

smith.jordan1mo ago

Read a study a while back that said something like 80% of data breaches come from weak passwords or reused ones. Your mom is definitely not alone in this, my aunt had the same sticky note system until her email got hacked and someone tried to get into her PayPal. Took that incident to finally get her on board with a password manager, though she still grumbles about it every time she logs in. Your mileage may vary on the 2FA thing too, some people just see it as an extra hassle until they actually get burned by a breach. At least you're looking out for her, most folks don't even bother.

kim_nelson1mo ago

Yeah that thing about getting burned first totally rings true. My buddy Mark is the most stubborn person I know about tech stuff, wouldn't even let me help him set up a password manager for years. Then his Netflix account got hijacked and someone changed the email and password while he was on vacation. Took him like three weeks of calling customer support to get it back. Now he's got a password manager and 2FA on everything and he actually bugs ME about being secure. Crazy how it takes getting your hand caught in the cookie jar to finally lock the lid.