My dad tried to "hack" my Netflix account by guessing my password 30 times

So last week I was visiting my parents in Cleveland and my dad comes up to me looking all proud. He says "I got into your Netflix finally, I tried every combination I could think of." I was like wait what? He had been sitting at his desktop for like an hour just typing in random passwords he thought I might use. Birthdays, my dog's name, even "password123" like 10 times in a row. I told him dude if Netflix had lockout rules you would have gotten us both banned. He just shrugged and said "well it worked didn't it?" No dad, you literally guessed my actual password on try #27 which is somehow less secure than just asking me for it. Has anyone else had a family member who thinks brute force guessing is totally normal?

3 comments

3 Comments

patricia_schmidt1425d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, I actually gotta push back a little here. Not gonna lie, I have a dad who does this too and honestly I kind of get where he's coming from. Think about it from their perspective, they grew up in a world where you didn't have to remember 50 different passwords for everything. My old man still writes his passwords on a sticky note stuck to his monitor. The brute force thing is just how their brains work, it's like a puzzle to them, not a security risk. And let's be real, if your password was guessable by your dad in under 30 tries, maybe it wasn't that secure to begin with. Just saying, take this with a grain of salt but sometimes a little patience with them goes a long way.

the_matthew25d ago

My mom did almost the exact same thing with my Hulu account last year lmao. She called me all excited saying she "cracked the code" after trying 15 different passwords. Turns out she was just cycling through my old passwords from like 2017 that she remembered from when I lived at home. I was like mom you know I can just add you as a profile right? She got all defensive saying that was "too complicated" and she preferred her method lol. The scary part is she actually got into my account on try #12 and now I feel like I need to change everything just to feel safe again. Parents really do not understand how accounts work these days.

lisaf3819d ago

Honestly the "it's too complicated" excuse is so real. I finally just sat my mom down one afternoon and walked her through adding herself as a profile on my Netflix. It took like 10 minutes and she still acts like I taught her rocket science. But now she never tries to brute force my stuff anymore so it was worth the hassle.