{"id":15221,"date":"2013-06-19T09:20:48","date_gmt":"2013-06-19T16:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/?p=15221"},"modified":"2015-01-13T07:59:40","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T15:59:40","slug":"ios-generated-hotspot-passwords-weak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/ios-generated-hotspot-passwords-weak\/","title":{"rendered":"Whoops! Those iOS-Generated Hotspot Passwords Are Really Weak"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/HotSpot.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15235\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/HotSpot.jpeg\" alt=\"HotSpot\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/HotSpot.jpeg 500w, https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/HotSpot-150x99.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/HotSpot-300x199.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Accessing the Internet when you\u2019re on the road can be a tricky thing. Using Wi-Fi can be a source of risk, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/how-to-protect-yourself-from-cyber-criminals-during-the-2012-london-olympic-games\/\" target=\"_blank\">especially if you\u2019re in a well-populated area<\/a>. So, you tether your iPhone to your laptop and surf the web that way instead. That\u2019s safer, right? Well, if you didn\u2019t change the Wi-Fi password from the one generated by iOS, it <a href=\"http:\/\/gizmodo.com\/you-should-stop-using-your-ios-generated-hotspot-passwo-514269871\" target=\"_blank\">might not give you much more protection<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You probably know a thing or two about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/4-types-of-passwords-you-shouldnt-create-unless-you-want-your-account-hacked\/\" target=\"_blank\">how not to create a good password<\/a>, and that using simple words found in a dictionary is definitely not a great way to make a strong password. It looks like someone creating the automatically generated passwords for the WiFi hotspot option didn\u2019t get that memo. Rather than using a more random assortment of characters, they opted to use a fairly limited list of dictionary words. It\u2019s certainly better than no password at all, but not by a whole lot.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t the end of the world, though. You can still have strong protection for your hotspot; you just need to <a href=\"http:\/\/support.apple.com\/kb\/HT4517?viewlocale=en_US&amp;locale=en_US\" target=\"_blank\">change the password<\/a> to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/4-tips-for-creating-secure-passwords\/\" target=\"_blank\">more secure one<\/a> of your own devising.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\">photo credit: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/carbonnyc\/99785459\/\">CarbonNYC<\/a> via <a href=\"http:\/\/photopin.com\">photopin<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\">cc<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Accessing the Internet when you\u2019re on the road can be a tricky thing. Using Wi-Fi can be a source of risk, especially if you\u2019re in a well-populated area. So, you tether your iPhone to your laptop and surf the web that way instead. That\u2019s safer, right? Well, if you didn\u2019t change the Wi-Fi password from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[465,69,353,96],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Accessing the Internet when you\u2019re on the road can be a tricky thing. 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