My IT buddy told me to use the same password for everything and I almost lost my email account

So my friend Mike who works in IT told me it was fine to reuse passwords as long as I had a good antivirus. I trusted him because he fixes computers for a living lol. Last month I got a notification that someone logged into my email from a random IP in Nigeria. Turns out a site I used got hacked and they had my password. The hacker tried to reset my bank password through my email and I caught it just in time. I spent like 3 hours changing passwords and setting up two factor authentication on everything. Has anyone else gotten bad advice from someone who should know better?

3 comments

3 Comments

sage_green21d ago

Honestly I gotta disagree with your IT buddy. Reusing passwords is like using the same key for your house, car, and storage unit. If someone gets that one key, they have everything. The antivirus thing doesn't really help because it's not like a virus stole your password, it was a data breach. I've seen people lose their whole Instagram or even their Amazon account because of this. Just use a password manager, it's way easier than trying to remember 20 different passwords and way safer.

corablack21d ago

Ngl I read somewhere that something like 80% of data breaches come from weak or reused passwords. That stat stuck with me because it means most people are just one leak away from losing everything.

angela_harris21d ago

Yeah what sage_green said about using the same key for everything is spot on. But heres something nobody brought up - even if you have a good antivirus, a lot of those breaches happen through third party sites that arent even tech related. Like imagine your grocery store loyalty program gets hacked. They have your email and password. If its the same one you use for your bank, you are done. Antivirus doesnt protect you from a random cooking blog or a forum you joined years ago getting breached. That IT guy was wrong in a way that shows he probably only thinks about direct computer threats, not how interconnected everything is now.