It is truly upsetting to see how few people use password managers. I have witnessed people who always use the same password (and even tell me what it is), people who try to login to accounts but constantly can’t remember which credentials they used, people who store all of their passwords on a text file on their desktop, people who use a password manager but store the master password on Discord, entire tech sectors in companies locked to LastPass, and so much more. One person even told me they were upset that websites wouldn’t tell you password requirements after you create your account, and so they screenshot the requirements every time so they could remember which characters to add to their reused password.
Use a password manager. Whatever solution you think you can come up with is most likely not secure. Computers store a lot of temporary files in places you might not even know how to check, so don’t just stick it in a text file. Use a properly made password manager, such as Bitwarden or KeePassXC. They’re not going to steal your passwords. Store your master password in a safe place or use a passphrase that you can remember. Even using your browser’s password storage is better than nothing. Don’t reuse passwords, use long randomly generated ones.
It’s free, it’s convenient, it takes a few minutes to set up, and its a massive boost in security. No needing to remember passwords. No needing to come up with new passwords. No manually typing passwords. I know I’m preaching to the choir, but if even one of you decides to use a password manager after this then it’s an easy win.
Please, don’t wait. If you aren’t using a password manager right now, take a few minutes. You’ll thank yourself later.
Yes this clarifies things. In summary, without 2FA:
So it’s a trade-off. If everyone was in the first category, then the obvious inconvenience of 2FA would just not be worth the benefit.
Absolutely not. You should always use 2FA. Most decent password managers even make it easy for you.
While cracking a strong password is nigh impossible rn they are still vulnerable to data breaches and pass-the-hash attacks.
Literally “always”, like every single time you open a website or app? No password manager can make SMS 2FA not a PITA. As for your second point, I addressed that. What if you literally don’t care about keeping data in question private? Individuals have different threat models, different priorities and all of this is a trade-off. It’s not absolute. That’s all I was saying. Anyway, I’m done here.
2FA should always be enabled. Doesn’t mean you always have to log out of a website. It’s a massive important security feature: it saves your ass if your passwords are leaked/cracked/bypassed and it warns you that someone is trying to access your account. Apps like ProtonPass literally make it extremely trivial to fill it in, just push the button that pops up and it will autofill the 6 digit code (or copy it to your clipboard in the worst case), it’s not SMS 2FA, so you’re frankly stupid for not using it if you have that option.
You didn’t address shit, strong passwords will still be vulnerable to certain attacks even if everyone used them. This isn’t a privacy matter either it’s a security one and regardless of what your threat model is 2FA should always be part of your security, there’s a reason more and more websites and apps are pushing it, cause if you don’t force idiots to adopt it they won’t even if it’s extremely important, same reason as why we need rules to make passwords more complicated. It may be an inconvenience (very tragic for the user I know, how dare they make something that autofills and takes a few seconds of my day away from watching useful shit like brainrot and some dumb comments on my favorite social media platform) but it’s an extremely important and necessary measure.