Ask HN: If I get locked out of everything, please try to help me

Post by DoreenMichele » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 1:39 AM UTC

Gigachad wrote: post #8

crooked-v wrote: post #6

There was a post a while back around poor and homeless people encountering exactly this problem on a regular basis. Lots of people in the comments were incredibly dismissive and sometimes actively malign about it. Edit: One suggestion from me would be to try and start the dead phone connected to power but with the battery physically removed (assuming it's removable). That might bypass whatever issue it's having and l…

Problem is that support people mistakenly resetting account auth when the attacker calls up and social engineers them is a bigger and more common issue than people’s only device dying. Not to say that’s not a thing that happens, but it’s a smaller of the two problems.

Post by crooked-v » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 1:40 AM UTC

Gigachad wrote: post #8

crooked-v wrote: post #6

There was a post a while back around poor and homeless people encountering exactly this problem on a regular basis. Lots of people in the comments were incredibly dismissive and sometimes actively malign about it. Edit: One suggestion from me would be to try and start the dead phone connected to power but with the battery physically removed (assuming it's removable). That might bypass whatever issue it's having and l…

Problem is that support people mistakenly resetting account auth when the attacker calls up and social engineers them is a bigger and more common issue than people’s only device dying. Not to say that’s not a thing that happens, but it’s a smaller of the two problems.

Post by Gigachad » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 1:45 AM UTC

crooked-v wrote: post #13

Gigachad wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is that support people mistakenly resetting account auth when the attacker calls up and social engineers them is a bigger and more common issue than people’s only device dying. Not to say that’s not a thing that happens, but it’s a smaller of the two problems.

The solution to that is to make the increasingly intrusive security processes an opt in, not to completely write off anyone who can't reliably keep a particular physical device on their person and working indefinitely.

Post by fncivivue7 » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 1:48 AM UTC

DoreenMichele wrote: post #11

Gigachad wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is that support people mistakenly resetting account auth when the attacker calls up and social engineers them is a bigger and more common issue than people’s only device dying. Not to say that’s not a thing that happens, but it’s a smaller of the two problems.

It's a smaller of the two problems for the company . If you are really poor, losing access to your online life because you couldn't pay your phone bill or something can be a huge, huge problem. I have been homeless. I'm not currently. But this is an extremely stressful situation that could do all kinds of damage to my life if I can't get it sorted.

Post by shyn3 » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 1:50 AM UTC

DoreenMichele wrote: post #7

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #4

This is my nightmare. This is why I refuse to use 2FA. (Except on services that require it, and I wish they didn't require it.) Am I worried about getting hacked? Absolutely! But when I weigh the likelihood of (1) someone else getting into my account without 2FA and (2) locking myself out of my own account with 2FA, the latter seems much more likely! I understand how backup codes work. I promise you I will loose them…

I'm seriously medically handicapped and have terrible eyesight issues. I typed the wrong password at first. I still had 1 percent power on my phone earlier and was previously able to get a code on it and I hoped I could get one last code before it outright died, so I said "Yeah, sure, send it to my phone" since they don't really want to do it another way. So then I had to ask another way when I couldn't get to it bec…