c/cybersecurity-tips

Lost $60 on a VPN that promised too much

Saw an ad for a $60 yearly VPN that claimed to block all trackers and ads. Figured why not, gave it a shot last month. First week was fine, but then my banking apps started failing and my speed dropped to like 5 Mbps. Turns out their kill switch was basically fake - my IP leaked in a test. Anyone else get burned by a cheap VPN that oversold itself?

2 comments

oliviahenderson•19d ago

Why does nobody talk about 2FA burnout?

Talked to a buddy who runs IT at a small firm in Boise. He said most of his users just click "remind me later" on 2FA prompts because it's too many steps during a busy day. Has anyone else noticed people giving up on security because it's just too annoying?

2 comments

oliver719•19d ago

Got phished at a Starbucks in Nashville last spring - changed my whole setup

I was grading papers on their public wifi and clicked a link that looked exactly like my bank's login page. It took me three days and two hours on the phone with my credit union to sort out the damage. What do you use for a personal VPN that actually works on a teacher's budget?

2 comments

jesse_nguyen•20d ago

Can we talk about choosing between a password manager and writing things down?

I spent a whole weekend going back and forth on this. My brother got hacked bad last month through a reused password, so I knew I had to change something. I picked Bitwarden because it was free and open source, but the first week I kept locking myself out of my own accounts cause I forgot the master password. Has anyone else dealt with that panic of not knowing if you can get back into your own stuff?

3 comments

barbara84•22d ago

I hit password 1,500 on my list and had to laugh

I keep a spreadsheet of all the passwords I find across my freelance work. It started as a joke, just something to track the worst ones clients gave me. Last week I crossed the 1,500 mark and realized 80% of them were some variation of "password123" or a pet's name. One client even used "letmein" for their banking portal. It made me wonder how many people actually use password managers versus picking something easy to remember. Has anyone else ever tracked the bad passwords they come across?

2 comments

gavin_reed•24d ago

A colleague told me I was using the same password across too many accounts, so I switched to a password manager last year and now I don't have to remember a single one.

He showed me how easy it was to crack a reused password from a data breach, and after that I spent an afternoon resetting 40 different logins, sorted by how risky they felt, and has anyone else found a good way to convince friends to do the same?

2 comments

cameron426•24d ago

Remember when we used to just share one password for everything?

Last week I was helping a student log into a school portal and they asked me for their 'credential manager' access. Made me think back to maybe 2015 when I had the same password for my email, bank, and streaming all at once. Crazy how we just trusted that nothing bad would happen. Anyone else ever have a close call that finally got you to change your habits?

2 comments

the_jessica•26d ago

Used the same password for 6 years until my email got hit last Tuesday

I always thought password managers were overkill. Like who is really going to bother hacking my accounts? Then last Tuesday I woke up to 12 login alerts from my email provider. Someone in Vietnam had gotten into my account overnight. They changed the recovery email and everything. It took me 4 hours on the phone with support to get it back. That weekend I set up a Bitwarden account and generated unique 20 character passwords for every site. Now I actually sleep better knowing each login is separate. Has anyone else had that moment where a breach finally made them change their habits?

3 comments

harper_wright•26d ago

Heard a guy at the coffee shop telling his friend his password was 'password123'

I was grabbing a latte at Brews & Bytes downtown last Tuesday when this dude loudly tells his buddy his bank login is 'password123' because he 'remembers it easy'. Couldn't help but think about how many people actually do that stuff. Anyone else ever overhear someone giving away their own security like that?

2 comments

phoenix_singh•1mo ago

Just realized my coffee shop's free WiFi was a security nightmare

I was at Brewed Awakening in Austin last Friday and noticed their guest network had no password. Everyone just clicks accept and gets online. I asked the barista about it and she said they never changed the default router login either. For a place with 40 laptops open every morning, that feels like asking for trouble. People are checking bank accounts and work emails on that network. Has anyone here convinced a local business to lock down their WiFi without sounding like a paranoid nutjob?

2 comments

emerycarr•1mo ago

Got phished via a fake Docusign link at a coffee shop - do you report that to the FBI or just your IT?

Last Tuesday I was at Blue Bottle on 3rd St in SF grabbing a latte and checking email on their guest wifi. Clicked what looked like a normal Docusign request from our vendor, but the domain was off by one letter. Entered my creds before I caught it. Locked everything down inside 4 minutes but man that was close. Some folks say always report to IC3, others say it just clogs the system. What do you guys do for this kind of thing? The fake page was pretty convincing too.

3 comments

evan295•1mo ago

Shoutout to that $30 password manager I wasted money on

Bought a password manager last year thinking it would fix all my login problems. Paid $30 for a year subscription. Turned out the free version of my browser does the same thing. It even autofills passwords on my phone without extra steps. Now I'm stuck with a tool I barely open. Felt like throwing cash into a hole. Anyone else jump on a security tool that just duplicated what you already had?

3 comments

abby_robinson58•1mo ago

It took a data breach at my bank to make me stop reusing passwords

I used the same password for everything for years, banking, email, even my Netflix account. Then my credit union in Buffalo got hit by a phishing attack back in March and someone tried to drain my savings. I finally realized one breach could take down my whole digital life, not just one account. How many of you actually use a password manager, or am I the last person to figure this out?

2 comments

drew906•1mo ago

Hot take: Is sharing your wifi password with guests a security risk or just being friendly?

I was at a cookout last weekend and my buddy refused to give out his wifi password to anyone. He said it's a huge security risk because guests might accidentally have malware or something. But my other friend said it's way safer than having people use public networks at Starbucks. I get both sides honestly. Like how many of you actually change your default router settings? And do you think the convenience of sharing is worth the risk?

2 comments

foster.patricia•1mo ago

Switched from free antivirus to paid and saw a huge difference after a ransomware scare last month

My roommate's laptop got hit with ransomware last month from clicking a bad email link. I was running the free version of Avast and he had nothing. His files got locked and he lost everything. Mine was fine but it scared me enough to actually pay for Malwarebytes Premium. Ran a full scan and found 3 tracking cookies my free one never caught. Has anyone else noticed a big gap between free and paid security software?

2 comments

abby308•1mo ago

Switched from LastPass to Bitwarden after a close call

I used LastPass for like 3 years but after that breach news I got nervous. Moved everything to Bitwarden last month and honestly the free tier does way more than I expected. The autofill works better on my phone too. Anyone else jump ship after a certain breach?

3 comments

barbaraw16•1mo ago

Learned a wild phishing trick from a receptionist in Omaha

I was waiting to sign some paperwork at a dental office last Tuesday, and the receptionist mentioned how she nearly got tricked by a fake email from "the boss." It looked totally legit with the right logo and signature, but the ask was for gift cards. She said IT had to run a whole training after three other offices in their network fell for it. Has anyone else seen these CEO impersonation scams getting more convincing?

2 comments

noah_webb•1mo ago

Two-factor authentication ruined my convenience and I'm not sorry

I used to think 2FA was just a hassle, and I rolled my eyes every time a site made me use it. But after my own email got hacked back in February 2023 because I reused a password from 2017, I spent a week cleaning up the mess. That one change saved me from having to explain to my dispatch why my trucking app login was compromised. Has anyone else seen their accounts get hit after ignoring this for too long?

2 comments

umaanderson•1mo ago

Just realized my neighbor was right about password managers after that scare at the library

I always thought password managers were just another thing to hack, so I used the same three passwords for everything. Then last month at the public library in Dayton, I left my laptop open for two minutes while I grabbed a coffee. Someone must have peeked at my screen because they tried logging into my email later that day. That neighbor, Mike, kept telling me to use a manager, and I finally caved after that. I set up Bitwarden in about 10 minutes, and honestly, I feel kinda dumb for waiting so long. Has anyone else had a close call that finally pushed them to change their habits?

3 comments

victor_ward•1mo ago

I finally understood why everyone says to use a password manager after my PayPal got drained in a coffee shop in Austin.

I was checking my bank account on their public wifi and a guy at the next table must have been running a packet sniffer, because two days later I saw a $347 charge for some gaming site I've never heard of, which forced me to spend the next month changing every single password I had.

2 comments

williams90•1mo ago

My home server got hit with a ransomware attack last Tuesday

I woke up to find all my family photos and tax documents encrypted with a .lockbit extension. It happened because I forgot to update the port forwarding rules on my router after setting up a new game server. I spent the next 48 hours restoring everything from a 6-month-old backup I had on an external drive in my closet. Has anyone else dealt with a home network breach from a simple config mistake like that?

2 comments

blairj55•1mo ago

That time a simple password reset took me three days to figure out

Back in 2018, I was locked out of an old admin panel because the 'forgot password' email just would not send. I spent two days checking spam filters and mail server logs before I realized the system was trying to send the reset link to an old, decommissioned internal email address that was still hard-coded in a config file. The fix was changing one line of text, but finding it was a nightmare. Anyone else ever waste a weekend on a config file from five years ago?

2 comments

holly_green82•1mo ago

Changed my mind about using the same password everywhere after my friend in Austin got his Instagram hacked last month.

He used 'AustinRocks2023' for his email, bank, and social media, and a keylogger on a sketchy game download got everything, which convinced me to finally set up a password manager with 16-character random strings for each account.

3 comments

matthew864•1mo ago

Vent: That $40 password manager felt like a waste until my old email got hit

I bought a year of a password manager for about $40 last fall and honestly thought it was just extra work. Then a few weeks ago, I got a bunch of alerts about someone trying to log into an old Yahoo account I still used for some things. Because the manager had made a unique, strong password for it, they couldn't get in. It would have been a real mess if that old account was a gateway to other stuff. Has anyone else had a close call that made a basic tool suddenly worth it?

3 comments

seanjohnson•1mo ago

My cousin in Seattle kept telling me to turn off Bluetooth when I'm not using it, and I finally listened after my phone tried to connect to a weird 'Free_WiFi' device at the airport.

Has anyone else caught their phone trying to pair with something sketchy like that?

3 comments