87
Use a password manager. Every account gets a different (and strong) password.
Obviously any reputable password manager is better than none at all, but I strongly recommend using KeepassXC on the desktop and a suitable mobile client for phones and tablets, and syncing the database across devices with an encrypted peer to peer sync tool like Synching.
I've always been nervous about being part of a large, juicy cloud hosted target, and LastPass was the proof that those concerns are well-founded.
Yep. If you've got the technical knowledge and a server, self hosting Bitwarden is quite easy. And your vault is end to end encrypted.
KeepassDX for mobile is on F-Droid and can use the same file as accessed from KeepassXC from Laptop, synced by Syncthing.
I can also recommend Keepass2Android, which I've been using for years.
All cool and dandy, until you have to type that random 50 letter string on your TV.
Many PW managers let you generate passphrases, which are all around better than random strings. Length is the most important factor so
finance-caffeine-utopia-redress-unseen
Is way stronger and easier to remember (and type) than
Fl7$j4FWw)&5O
Huh, TIL. I had no idea that was an option but that's super useful for things I need to type in on a device with no keyboard, or even things I can't access my password manager for. Thanks for the protip there!
Is it really safer? I mean when trying to bruteforce a password, one would have to make a guess whether it's a passphrase or not. But if you decided to check for pass phrases, wouldn't the one you posted be cracked in 5 times the amount of words in that dictionary? I'm not sure how large the vocabularies of the generators are, but I would guess a random 17 char password might be safer than a 5 phrases password?
but I would guess a random 17 char password might be safer than a 5 phrases password
And you would be very wrong about that. A 5 phrase password has entropy. "finance-caffeine-utopia-redress-unseen" is 28 characters. If you add in a different symbol between the words and add a number somewhere, this password becomes incredibly difficult to brute force.
I'll let xkcd explain it better.
Youre right,different separators, numbers and even capital letters change my theory alot
It'd be dictionary length to the fifth power, not times five.
And pass phrases are faster to type and with less typos even though they need more characters than passwords to be the same secure.
You don't need to make it that long.
And also most TVs or whatever you're streaming with has a way to type from your phone nowadays. Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, heck I think even Xbox.
It's kinda nice on Apple TV your phone will suggest autofill passwords for the TV, even from theirs party password managers like Bitwarden.
Android tv's arent that old. 10 years max. 5 years since it's affordable for most people. Is it unreasonable to own a 5 year old non-smart tv? I think not. I think it's weird that so many people assume everyone owns a smart tv.
In what scenario would you need to type in a password on a non-smart TV though? Parental lock?
You're not wrong but in what context would you be putting in passwords on a non-smart device
Also it's not just smart TVs. You can hook up streaming sticks and boxes and game consoles to anything with an HDMI port
I had to do that recently, ended up being easier to just temporarily change the password to something short on a pc, then change it back after.
As long as you generate the PW with numbers and special characters included, a 14 character password will take over a hundred years to crack.
50 is so unnecessarily large, it closes in on the age of the universe amount of time needed to brute force.
For symmetric keys, since they cannot be weakened using quantum computing, their strength can be assessed by their bit-equivalent amount of entropy:
- 40 bit or less - easily breakable
- 64 bit - not so easy, but doable
- 128 bit or more - basically unbreakable
Those are equivalent to, respectively:
- 0-9 - 12, 19, 38 characters
- a-z - 9, 14, 28 characters
- a-z0-9 - 8, 12, 25 characters
- A-Za-z0-9 - 7, 11, 22 characters
- A-Za-z0-9+special - 7, 10, 21 characters
Moral of the story: drop the special characters, and even the numbers... and even the uppercase. A 30+ character long all-lowercase pass phrase, is already unbreakable.
Check @falsemirror@beehaw.org:
finance-caffeine-utopia-redress ~~-unseen~~
...is already over 128 bits.
Additionally, I use simplelogin so they also gotta match unique passwords with my unique emails and then get past 2fa.
Let me tell you something about Betteridge's law for headlines
This story is a great demonstration of my maxim that any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word "no." The reason why journalists use that style of headline is that they know the story is probably bullshit, and don't actually have the sources and facts to back it up, but still want to run it
Thank you so much for introducing me to this
My pleasure :)
Cybersecurity is expensive and doesn't contribute directly to profits. It can prevent serious damages (legal, financial, and reputation) but that requires long-term thinking. Most executives don't look past quarterly earnings.
Neoliberals: "OK how about we keep doing the thing that makes them care only about next quarter, but give them a $1 fine every time they're negligent?"
id recommend custom email addresses.. most places let you tack on arbitrary strings to your email address or if you have your own domain, you can just forward all and use anyname@yourdomain on the fly.
no single system compromise can affect any other system
But many sites don't support that, unfortunately.
DHL for example will happily create an account for you with the "mail+xyz@gmail", but will sometimes drop the suffix internally. You can't reset your password for example. Super annoying.
On the other end, prevent malicious actors from using identity theft to get credit cards and loans: freeze your credit.
- Transunion: https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze
- Experian: https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
- Equifax: https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/
It'll be a minor hassle when you go to get a car loan, and forget that your credit is frozen - but you will be able to temporarily unfreeze it from your phone.
Any lemmy instances included in this breach?
Edit: Doesn't appear to be the case. At least, when I checked mine they were fine.
Is there someplace to get this list of passwords? I'm not worried about my current passwords being on there, but there was one I used years ago that I still haven't found on any list. I'm curious if it's on there yet.
The list has been added to haveibeenpwned.com, you can check your passwords here.
OH NO, IT'S ON THERE!
...anyway...
this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
87 points (100.0% liked)
Technology
37702 readers
380 users here now
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS