Every year, without fail, some analytics firm comes out with a list of the most absurdly bad passwords that real people are actually using to secure their various web accounts. There’s stuff like “password,” “qwerty,” and “baseball” on the list, and we all collectively hang our heads in shame. But why do people keep hampering their own security? Maybe it’s because companies like Charter — which is currently the third most popular cable company on in the United States behind Comcast and the AT&T-DirecTV megalith — keep treating security like a joke. In a recent tweet by Charter, the company advises that users change their Wi-Fi password, which is good advice, but it’s what they suggest as a new password that is terribly short-sighted.
The tweet, captured by TechCrunch, attempts to capitalize on the Super Bowl hype by telling football fans to change their passwords to the name of the team they support. “Change your WiFi password and show guests where your loyalty lies!” the tweet reads, followed by the hashtag #ThatsMyTeam. The image included with the tweet is the real kicker:
Ah, lovely. There’s nothing like advising your 18 million customers to change the key that secures their internet service to something as predictable as their favorite sports team to remind us just how much you care about digital security.
As you might expect, the tweet has since been deleted from Charter’s account, though the company hasn’t posted any statement, apology, or even acknowledgement of the obvious gaff. Whatever you do, don’t take security advice from a cable company.
