Zuckerberg's Password Fail: 'Dadada'
Facebook's very own Mark Zuckerberg's suffered the sting of hackers recently when his Twitter and Pinterest accounts were compromised. All fingers seem to be pointing to the 2012 LinkedIn hack that proved to be a major embarrassment for the professional networking site -- and may have revealed Zuckerberg's password.
But it looks like the Facebook CEO could be gaining: his password for multiple accounts was 'dadada'. For shame.
Worst Password Ever?
It's one thing if your college room-mate who uses a pizza box as a pillow has a terrible password. But it's another thing entirely when the CEO and co-founder of Facebook has a terrible password.
Zuckerberg took a hit to his credibility when it was revealed by the group that hacked his accounts that his password involved to letters repeated three times in sequence: 'dadada'. Even the most sophomoric of password tutorials would caution against this.
Zuckerberg, owing to his position at the top of social media, had a reputation to keep up. As a geek, he's obligated to represent. We expect him to understand the gravity of password security better than most people. And yet he used a password across multiple accounts, a password that was so weak it probably could have been brute-forced by a processor used by a Gameboy.
One Password to Rule Them All
Zuckerberg's failure to use a more complicated and stochastic password aside, the hack shines a light on a practice that most of us are guilty of committing. We tend to use a single password for all of our applications and accounts. Though we're cautioned against this as bad practice, we do it anyway.
After all, who the heck can keep track of 37 passwords??
Nobody.
We're at a password crossroads. It doesn't help any knowing that our workplaces have implemented panicked mandatory password changes in a somewhat feeble but well-intentioned attempt to parry attacks by hackers who could be, for all we know, operating from a small room from beneath the Atlantic. We've heard of weirder things before.
The scary thing is that many of us are used to hacking news and are in that weird twilight zone region of hopelessness or denial -- the "it won't happen to me" mindset. And so we don't take the necessary steps to fight against it because the prospect of changing passwords to ten accounts, making sure they're different, and keeping track of them all? Criminy, most of us would rather elect for the pain of oral surgery than to endure that password management hell.
Password Managers: Because We're Too Stupid
Enter password management programs like Lastpass and Dashlane. But although these programs offer a seductive solution (generating a new password each time you sign in) they're new and not yet time-tested. Still, given the choice of virgin technology and resorting to pen-paper-under-the-bed security, maybe it's worth a shot?
It may be that the time is now. The human population is now addicted to speed and convenience and we're not ready to give that up. Lawyers too have been equally if not more lax -- and that's a no no. Or did we mean a "nonono?"
Related Resources:
- Zuckerberg Hacking Serves as Reminder to Change Passwords (The Wall Street Journal)
- InstaAgent App Has Been Stealing Your Password (FindLaw's Technologist)
- What's the Ultimate Password? Your Body? (FindLaw's Technologist)
