Recently, the Twitter account of India’s PM got hacked by someone who might be a Keanu Reeves fan (who isn’t?!). And, obviously, that’s not the only high profile account which has got compromised in recent history but it keeps happening once in a while. If even the most powerful person in the country is insecure online, think about yourself. Your password would be even easier to break down. It is just Password@123. Right?
Normally, Passwords are somethings we hold very dear. We can share the most personal things with others but not passwords. Some people do share passwords at work for common systems which is highly risky in itself but they will never share passwords of their bank accounts for sure.
I got to know about an incident a few days ago which made me ponder about passwords sharing. Sadly and to everyone’s shock, one of my acquaintances passed away untimely, leaving the family in deep sadness and a state of utter helplessness. Not only that they had to bear the pain of a loss, but it also meant that they had to struggle hard to understand the finances, close Bank Accounts, withdraw money from PF accounts and the list goes on. I don’t want to just do the guesswork but I can understand that they would have had to go to lengths to just log on to any online account one to resolve minor things as well. It could have been avoided (I am highly simplifying this) if passwords had been shared with family.
It is easier said than done, but if not for everything, we can start with sharing some passwords with your friends and families. If not passwords, at least it is high time that everyone who uses a phone learn about the shared drive folders and services.
It would be worthwhile to learn about Password Wallet Apps like LastPass, 1Password, etc. We can keep our passwords in these apps and share that wallet with family. It is like giving an extra key to your house to people you trust. These apps are great at generating strong passwords themselves. It is also good to learn about 2FA (2 Factor Authentication) where every login to most of the sites is accompanied by a One-time-password text sent to your phone. Apps like Authy can keep a track of all the sites on which 2FAs is enabled.
Sharing passwords/cloud drive folders and securing logins using 2FA is only going to help. For all your incognito websites, just remember it and take it to the grave, of course.
I had written a post about Passwords in past too.
Photo by Dan Nelson on Unsplash
