Your Passwords Are Probably Screwed

The New York Times ^ | April 28, 2026, 5:02 a.m. ET | Brett J. Goldstein

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Mr. Goldstein is a professor at Vanderbilt University who specializes in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence

Anthropic recently sent a shock wave through the cybersecurity world when it said its new artificial intelligence model, Claude Mythos, had exhibited an extraordinary ability to find previously unknown vulnerabilities in software — a hacker’s fantasy. Concern over the tool’s power caused Anthropic to restrict its release mainly to bigger companies, allowing them time to secure their software.

What is everyone else supposed to do? Smaller companies, organizations, nonprofits and regular people are just as much at risk as larger companies. But they most likely lack the skills and resources to address these challenges before their systems are compromised.

Many people may think these problems belong only to the world of cybersecurity experts or tech people, but that’s no longer true. New A.I. tools are going to increase how much insecure software you use in your day-to-day life, while giving attackers a new, powerful weapon to exploit vulnerabilities. If you’re still being careless about things like the strength of the passwords you choose, you’re in for a pretty bad time. If there was ever a time to finally take your cybersecurity practices seriously, it’s now.

I often give talks on cyberdefense to small groups. Inevitably, the conversation turns to personal concerns. Is this app OK? What should I do to protect my phone? Typically, I find a vulnerability for each person. One hasn’t installed bug fixes or security updates on their phone; another doesn’t use two-factor authentication on critical applications. Many have a dangerous app on their device. When confronted with the reality that they are at risk of attack, most insist that enjoyment and convenience outweigh the potential downsides.

That’s always been a dangerous miscalculation, but it’s worse now. We need to correct our behavior...

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TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: ai; anthropic; brettjgoldstein; claude; mythos; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; vanderbiltu

[sauropod]

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[jroehl]

Free AI marketing and hype brought to you by the The New York Times.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Passwords are like toothbrushes. Don't let any one else use it and change it every six months.

These days, it should be changed each month, 30 characters long and stored in a password manager.

[Uncle Miltie]

If I were nefarious and had access to Claude, I would sic it on Password Manager software.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The one I use is on my phone. A password to get in, yes...but a fingerprint to unmask each password.