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c/cybersecurity-tips

15

rose_clark81•4d ago

The day my password manager saved me from a phishing link

I clicked a link in an email that looked exactly like my bank's login page. My password manager refused to autofill and that's when I realized the URL was off by one letter. Has anyone else had their password manager catch something sketchy like that?

23

logan271•7d ago

Debate: Should you use a VPN on public wifi or not?

I always thought using a VPN at coffee shops was a no-brainer, but after testing 3 different ones at a Starbucks in Austin, my connection got 5 times slower and one site flagged me as a bot. Some guys online say free wifi is fine if you stick to HTTPS sites only. What's your take on this whole VPN or no VPN thing for public networks?

8

kim_davis•7d ago

Overheard a guy at Starbucks mention his router password was 'password123'

I was sitting near a guy on a video call who laughed about using 'password123' for his home router. He even said he never changed it from the sticker on the bottom. How many people are running their whole network with default settings and no idea how easy that is to crack?

23

flores.mark•8d ago

Switched from random passwords to a manager after getting locked out of my bank

I used to just use the same couple passwords for everything, figured it was fine. Then last year I got locked out of my Bank of America account after too many wrong tries and had to spend 45 minutes on the phone fixing it. Now I use Bitwarden and let it generate long random passwords for each site. Has anyone else had a close call that finally pushed them to change their password habits?

2

miaprice•10d ago

Swore by complex passwords until a coworker at my MSP showed me passphrases after I locked myself out of a client server 3 times in one week

A 6 word passphrase like 'correct horse battery staple' is way easier to remember and still passes our 16 character policy, so why is everyone still pushing random junk?

7

rosepark•11d ago

Appreciation post: Found a forgotten guest WiFi network with no password at a coffee shop in Tucson

I was at this little coffee shop near the university in Tucson last week, just doing some work. While I was checking my own hotspot setup, I saw their guest network pop up on my phone. It had no password at all, wide open for anyone. That's a big risk for people using it, especially if they're logging into bank accounts or email. I ended up telling the barista about it and they actually changed it to a password by the time I left. Has anyone else run into open networks like this and actually said something?

4

lisab32•11d ago

Pro tip: Stop preaching password managers to everyone you meet

I told a guy at a coffee shop in Portland last month that he should use a password manager after he mentioned getting hacked on Facebook. He looked me dead in the eye and said 'I trust my memory more than some app that holds all my keys in one basket.' Now I wonder, is pushing complex solutions actually making people less secure by turning them off from basic safety? Anyone else run into this wall where simple advice gets rejected for being too much work?

7

shane_wilson•12d ago

Switched to a password manager after my old spreadsheet got compromised

I used to keep all my logins in a plain text file on my desktop for like 8 years until someone got into my email last fall and found it. They cleaned out two accounts before I even noticed, and it cost me about $300 in fraud charges I had to fight. What do you use to keep track of your passwords that actually works without being a hassle?

18

wade_dixon•13d ago

That one friend who clicked a sketchy link at a coffee shop in Nashville

I was grabbing a latte downtown last month when my buddy Dave opened an email claiming his bank account was frozen, and he clicked the link before I could stop him. Has anyone else had to talk someone out of panic-clicking a phishing link in public?

1

henryr45•14d ago

That 'password manager is a single point of failure' argument is getting old

Was at a coffee shop in Denver last Thursday and overheard this guy telling his friend he wont use any password manager because 'if it gets hacked you lose everything.' I had to bite my tongue. Like bro, you reuse the same 3 passwords everywhere and have 2FA on nothing. The real single point of failure is your memory. Has anyone else run into people who think theyre too smart for password managers?

12

rosepark•16d ago

Threw $200 at a password manager that locked me out last week

I got burned by paying for a fancy password manager subscription for a whole year upfront and then their sync feature glitched out and I couldn't get into any of my accounts. Took me 3 days of resetting everything manually and I still lost access to an old email with important docs. Has anyone else had a subscription just stop working and cost you more in time than the fee?

0

henryr45•17d ago

Found out 80% of data breaches come from phishing emails according to a Verizon report I read last night

I never realized how many attacks start with something as simple as a fake email link, has anyone here actually clicked one by accident and what did you do after?

34

simonlee•18d ago

Spent 4 hours chasing a DNS issue that turned out to be one missing period

I was debugging why my home server kept failing to reach an external API last Tuesday, and I checked everything from firewall rules to certificate expiration. Turns out I forgot a trailing period in a CNAME record, which made the whole thing silently break. Anyone else waste ridiculous time on tiny typos like this?

13

wesley639•20d ago

Took me 4 hours to realize my VPN was blocking my own security scans

I was trying to run a basic port scan on my home network last night to check for open ports after setting up a new router. Kept getting weird results with half the ports showing as filtered or closed when I knew they should be open. After 4 hours of messing with firewall settings and rebooting things, I finally remembered I had my VPN turned on. The VPN was routing my scan traffic through a different server and blocking my own local network. Has anyone else had a similar issue where a simple tool conflicted with their own setup like that?

7

bell.jessica•21d ago

Warning: Took me 14 hours to fix a simple DNS cache issue

I spent a whole Saturday thinking my router was dying because my laptop could connect to everything except my email provider. Turned out the DNS record for that one domain got stuck after I changed my VPN settings three weeks ago. Has anyone else had a weird lingering DNS issue that wasn't fixed by just restarting everything?

7

sagejackson•21d ago

Paid $40 for a password manager and it saved my accounts twice already

I used to just use the same password for everything because I figured who would want my boring life data. Then I got that email from a site I used back in 2017 saying my info was in a breach. Hit me hard that I had no idea what I was doing. Picked up Bitwarden after a friend showed me how it works on his phone. Anyone else stick with one password for years out of pure laziness?

8

ray613•22d ago

That stat about password managers blew my mind

I read something on a security blog last Tuesday that still has me thinking. Apparently over 80% of data breaches happen because of weak or stolen passwords. I always thought it was more about fancy hacking tools or zero day exploits. But nope, it's basically just people using 'password123' or the same login for everything. That really hit home for me because I used to do the same thing until I got hit with a phishing email two years ago. Lost access to an old email account and it took me a week to sort it out. Now I use a password manager but I still wonder if most folks even know how easy it is to get cracked. Has anyone else here had a close call that made them switch things up?

3

dianawilson•22d ago

Got hit with a ransomware demand after clicking a fake invoice link

Last Tuesday I was in a hurry and clicked a PDF link in an email that looked like it was from our vendor in Chicago. Turned out it was ransomware that locked up all the shared drives on our office network. The popup demanded $2,500 in Bitcoin to unlock everything. I'm wondering if anyone else has dealt with these fake invoice scams and how you handled getting your files back without paying.

19

nathan_kim•23d ago

Ditched password managers for a hardware key last month

Used LastPass for years. Then their breach happened in 2022. Lost trust completely. Now I use a YubiKey for everything important. Took 2 days to set up across my accounts but zero phishing worries now. Any of you made the switch to physical keys?

24

sanchez.ivan•24d ago

I set up a guest Wi-Fi network for my parents and it stopped a weird problem they were having.

My mom kept complaining that her smart TV would drop connection every time I visited and used their Wi-Fi with my laptop. I thought it was just a weak signal, but after it happened three times in a row, I decided to look into it. I logged into their router and saw my laptop and the TV were on the same network, which seemed fine. On a hunch, I created a separate guest network for visitors, gave it a different name and password, and connected only my devices to it. The next time I visited, the TV stayed connected perfectly the whole weekend. I think my laptop's background updates or something were clogging the main network just enough to kick off the TV. It was a simple fix that made a huge difference. Has anyone else had a device act up like that when too many things are on one network?

27

kai839•25d ago

Overheard a guy at the hardware store bragging he uses the same password for everything

He was buying a smart lock and said it was fine because his password was 'complicated'. I mean, that's how you get your whole digital life cleaned out if one site gets breached. Has anyone actually gotten a family member to start using a password manager?

21

shane_morgan•25d ago

Just switched from free to paid password manager after my cousin got hacked

I always thought a free one was fine until he lost his Instagram last month because of a reused password. Bitwarden Premium is like $10 a year and the extra security checks are worth it. Anyone else make the jump from a free plan?

31

fionanguyen•27d ago

Checked my password manager and saw I had 87 unique passwords

I was cleaning up my vault and the count really hit me. I thought maybe 30 or 40, but 87 means I've made a unique one for almost every site. It started after a small forum I used got hacked years back. Now I'm curious, what's a good number of passwords to have in your manager?

28

paulnguyen•28d ago

Just set up a new router and had to pick between WPA2 and WPA3 for my home network

My old router finally died last week, so I got a new one that supports the newer WPA3 security. I had to choose between using just WPA2, which all my stuff works with, or turning on WPA3, which is supposed to be safer. I went with WPA3 because I read it fixes some big problems WPA2 has, like those KRACK attacks. So far, my phone and laptop connect fine, but my smart TV won't join the network at all. Has anyone else run into devices that don't play nice with WPA3 yet? What did you do to fix it?

22

dylanrodriguez•1mo ago

Hot take: I thought using a password manager was just extra hassle for no reason.

After my cousin in Austin got his bank account drained from a reused password, I finally tried Bitwarden and it's way easier than remembering 50 different codes. Anyone else switch from writing them down and have a better free option?