The European Union's privacy regulator fined Meta, parent company of Facebook, 91 million euros for storing users' passwords in plaintext. It was a bug—sloppy, but not intentional—and they turned themselves in. The fine was for failure to implement "data protection by design and by default." — Read the rest
TL;DR: Evade password hackers by storing your passwords on Thetis, a physical password key that ensures only you can access your info. A three-pack is now on sale for less than $65!
Still storing your passwords on your iCloud key? — Read the rest
A 2011 xkcd comic popularized the idea of using memorable but nonsensical words as passwords. The comic provided the example "correct horse battery staple," which is easy to remember but difficult to crack through brute force methods.
Recently, I stumbled upon an insult passphrase generator. — Read the rest
Great news! That massive, roughly 7 million people-strong data breach from late last year is your fault, not the 23andMe's. You know your genetic lineage and racial makeup information is in good hands when the company in charge of it immediately lays the blame on the victim. — Read the rest
TL;DR: If you need a safe, secure way to lock something, look no further than the Mini Smart Fingerprint Padlock. Not only is it an easy, smart method for locking up your valuables, but it's now more affordable than ever — usually retailing for $34, it's now on sale for just $24.99. — Read the rest
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Let's face it. You've definitely sat in front of your laptop, straining your memory to figure out what you made your password years ago. — Read the rest
Nordpass partnered with researchers to evaluate a 3TB database to find the 200 most common passwords. Topping the list is "password," followed by "123456," which is not surprising. But the 9th most common password is "col123456." Why is that so popular? — Read the rest
From your music streaming subscriptions and bank accounts to your work laptop, passwords unlock the most vital things in our lives. Unfortunately, that's a mess to track unless you're exceptionally organized or have some intricate communication system for your passwords and logins. — Read the rest
Nowadays, strong, complicated passwords are necessary for everything in life, and there's nothing more frustrating than forgetting it and being locked out of your own accounts. Saving your passwords on websites is an alternative, but then your personal information is accessible to cyber-hacking. — Read the rest
Microsoft users might be able to throw away the sticky note taped to their laptop: the company introduced a new option to delete password authentication.
Microsoft uses its authenticator app, fingerprint/facial recognition, and SMS/email verification codes to verify accounts— which may be more secure than using "soccerlover123" or "Mychemicalromance1998!" — Read the rest
You do everything online these days, from banking to chatting with long-distance family members to car shopping. And thanks to the plethora of services and apps we have at our fingertips today, we can complete our many online tasks with incredible ease. — Read the rest
Next year, residents of Singapore won't need a passport to return to their home country. When they get home, all travelers will have to do is submit to a quick facial, retinal, or fingerprint scan and let the database find them to confirm their identities. — Read the rest
The far-right hate platform Gab has been hacked and 70GB of private posts and other data are being made available to journalists and social scientists, says Distributed Denial of Secrets cofounder Emma Best.
From Wired:
— Read the rest"It contains pretty much everything on Gab, including user data and private posts, everything someone needs to run a nearly complete analysis on Gab users and content," Best wrote in a text message interview with WIRED.
Password management software company NordPass published its list of the "Top 200 most common passwords of the year 2020." The top 10 are mostly the glaringly obvious ones that somehow people still use. "Password" even moved up a spot to number four! — Read the rest
You probably think you're pretty clever. You've been rocking the same Gmail account login since your freshman year of college — and it's still just as safe as the day you created the password.
Hey, if "football" was good enough to get you through freshman year, it'll serve you well into 2021 and beyond, right? — Read the rest
More than half of you think the best way to manage your passwords is to just keep 'em safely stashed away in your own noggin. Meanwhile, there are also bunches of you that favor saving passwords in your browser, putting them in a spreadsheet or just writing them down on a piece of paper or a sticky note. — Read the rest
If you write down passwords, use easily crackable passwords like your birthday or recycle the same ones over and over…you're doing it all wrong.
We get it…because remembering several dozen passwords for all your personal and professional logins, accounts and websites is borderline madness. — Read the rest
I use a password manager to deal with my hundreds of different passwords, and it's pretty convenient to use on my phone and laptop. But the Fido (fast identification online) Alliance thinks getting access to your online accounts could be even more convenient and secure by replacing passwords with your trusted devices. — Read the rest
Scott Budnick (producer of the "Hangover" movies) is embroiled in a complicated feud with an LA homicide cop named Sgt. Richard Biddle; Biddle has pursued his investigation against Budnick by securing an incredibly broad search-warrant to seize his Google data.
Early versions of the free/open Unix variant BSD came with password files that included hashed passwords for such Unix luminaries as Dennis Ritchie, Stephen R. Bourne, Eric Schmidt, Brian W. Kernighan and Stuart Feldman.
