Sharing your WiFi password... on TV

Your password should:

  • be at least ten characters long
  • contain special characters
  • contain capital letters
  • not appear in the nightly news
3 Likes

Well, since you’re already displaying it on a massive screen in a conference hall, presumably so that all the attendees have access, your password is presumably more of a figleaf than an actual security feature.

Is sharing it with a few million more people really going to make much difference?

Is there any point having a password in those circumstances, let alone one that theoretically meets the “best practice” advice on choosing passwords.

Besides, we all know the only really secure password is “correcthorsebatterystaple”.

4 Likes

It is a fail in any case, as the wifi was intended for the conference participants, the heads of state and the accredited journalists in the room. In theory, it exposes the network to activists or pranksters with a strong enough signal booster from outside of the conference building. I’m sure the Chaos Computer Club hackers could say more, but I never got that deep into it.

Besides, even if it’s just a conference wireless network that will go dark once it’s over, it shows why putting the guest WiFi password up on a screen is sloppy.

2 Likes

Well, it certainly is if the footage is live. If it’s on the evening news the day after the conference and you’ve already changed the password, not so much.

Quite so. But then once you have that many people with the password details, you might as well not bother with a password at all.

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