Plaintext credentials in any message, doc, or link should be treated as a security incident waiting to happen. No convenience is worth a breach. Use a password manager, enable multi-factor authentication (MFA), and train your team: Never type a password where anyone else can read it in plain text. Call to Action 🔐 Review your team’s communication channels for exposed credentials. 🔄 Rotate any passwords found in old emails/chats. 📢 Share this post with your colleagues—awareness is your first line of defense.

If you checked any box, change those passwords today and adopt a secure sharing process.

You’ve seen it before—an email, a chat message, or a support ticket that says: “Login here: https://fake-site.com/login – username: james123 / password: Spring2024!” At first glance, it might seem helpful for sharing access quickly. But this practice—embedding plaintext usernames and passwords directly into a message or URL—is one of the fastest ways to compromise your accounts, your data, and your entire organization.

| | Do this… | |----------------|--------------| | Emailing a password | Use a password manager’s secure share feature (Bitwarden Send, 1Password shared vault, Keeper). | | Putting creds in Slack/Discord | Grant access via SSO or direct account provisioning; never paste secrets. | | Embedding in a URL | Use a session-based token or a one-time magic link (no password in URL). | | Sharing with a new teammate | Onboard them with a temporary password that must be changed on first login. | | Sending via SMS | Send a one-time verification code, not the actual password. |

Stay secure, not sorry.

It’s exactly what it sounds like: writing credentials in plain, readable text within a non-secure communication channel (email, Slack, SMS, shared doc, or even a browser URL like https://example.com/login?user=admin&pass=1234 ).