My neighbor's password tip saved me from a headache last week

She told me to stop using my dog's name in passwords because it's the first thing hackers try. I changed my email password to something random, and sure enough got a login attempt alert two days later from someone in Russia. Anybody else ignore simple advice for years and then regret it?

3 comments

3 Comments

terry_wood511mo ago

I read something the other day about how hackers actually do use common pet names in automated scripts, not manually typing them one by one. They have programs that try thousands of common passwords a second, and "Fido123" or "Max2020" are in those lists. You're right that data breaches are the bigger problem, but it's not like those scripts ignore pet names entirely. I saw this cybersecurity guy explain that they pull from leaked password dumps and also run common word lists at the same time. So your neighbor wasn't totally off base, it's just more complicated than a person sitting there guessing. A random password is definitely safer though, no doubt about that.

black.joel1mo ago

Respectfully, I gotta disagree a little bit. A hacker isn't sitting there manually typing "Fido123" into every account they find, that's just not how it works. Usually they get your password from a data breach on some website you used years ago and then they try that same password everywhere else. Your dog's name is only a problem if you used it with no numbers or special characters and it showed up in a breach list. The random password change probably just happened to line up with when your info got sold on some dark web forum. Not saying your neighbor gave bad advice, but it's not like hackers are sitting around guessing your pet's name over and over.

phoenix_carter6d ago

Yeah that whole thing with passwords is just... frustrating honestly. I had a similar wakeup call when my bank account got flagged for suspicious login attempts after I used my cat's name and the year I got her for like 5 years straight. Felt pretty dumb when the fraud guy told me they run automated scripts against common patterns like pet names and sports teams with a random number tacked on. Your random change probably saved you more trouble than you realize, even if the timing feels coincidental. That Russia alert must've been jarring though, glad you caught it before anything happened.