Then they have you make it some 12 character length minimum string with mixed case and special characters and dictionary lookup so it isn't some common phrase but you're also logging in through a telnet instance onto a Unix system.
Sysadmin: “A clear indication of phishing email is the sense of urgency. We would never send out any email regarding urgent updates that needs immediate action.”
Also sysadmin: “URGENT!!! You must update your system now before Friday!!! Click link here for instructions! Otherwise you will be locked out!”
Then do this to computer-shaped instrument controller systems that have accounts that can not have passwords changed or the application won't run. Or service accounts, so if you pop in after 6 months, nobody knows the current password and the IT guy only comes in 2 hours/week. And that was yesterday. And no, no contact information present...
Installs antivirus on servers that wrecks application performance
installs content filtering proxy that prevents developers from reading “hacking materials” like OWASP documentation
won’t let developers install anything on their own machines without filing a ticket and waiting 6 weeks
pushes unannounced antivirus updates that pop up OS security dialogs like “Netscan Antivirus would like to monitor all network traffic. Enter your password to approve”, and is surprised when users don’t enter their passwords.
They usually don't have a choice. They know this stuff is bad, but they need it to demonstrate compliance with XYZ framework so they can fill out the marketing copy so sales can land a contract with some big customer that wants to know why $competitor has better security than you.
Encourages users to just add a rotating number or other not too secure thing to their password. I know that’s what I did when I worked somewhere with that dumbfuck policy.
NIST removed password expiration from their recommendations in 2020. Instead they recommend only forcing password changes when compromise is suspected.
The main argument is that they do not make users or systems demonstrably safer and encourage bad password habits.
The original idea was that you would take how long it took to brute-force a password, then require the password be changed before that. But we have better hashing now, like bcrypt, where you can tune it so that brute forcing anything would take 100s of years.
It was never best practices for anyone who had common sense.
It just forced people to make insecure, easy to remember passwords, cause they were gonna be changed in again soon so why make it complicated and hard to remember.
I used to have a lady I worked with who was like this. She had the common sense of a fucking carrot and was dumb as shit. What was weird is she was highly skilled in the one job she was hired for, the rest of the time she would click on everything and I would had to fix her computer multiple times a week. One time I tried to walk her thru something on the phone and I told her to click on an icon, her response was "Whats an icon?"
At my work the company wanted to show some gratitude and sent out email with free ice cream vouchers to everybody. Many suspected this was just another one of these cybersecurity email tests, so the company had to clarify it’s all real.
I think it’s hilarious the thought about hackers using ice cream as bait. Maybe that would work?
I imagine it'd be satisfying to reply “fuck off”, but it'd let the attacker know it is a live address for a more targeted spear phfishing attack, so it is the right call not to respond imho.
wait untill you hear "if i remember correctly my email password was {name} {surname} something @ gmail.com... what do you mean that's not it? why do i even need a password?"...
Searches for things online by typing it as a post on social media instead of using a search engine as in: "Google what is the weather like today near me?"