IT department and auditors at major pharmacy chain got into a rip-roaring fight about using 'password' on Cisco firewall

Welcome back to PWNED, the column where we talk about companies and organizations that leave the doors wide open to attackers. This week’s sad story involves a major American pharmacy chain that couldn’t fill a prescription for password security.

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Our tale comes courtesy of red team and pen testing specialist Dahvid Schloss, who currently serves as COO of Suzu Labs, a cybersecurity company that boasts “we break your systems before adversaries do.” Over a career spanning more than 15 years, Schloss has assessed the security of numerous businesses, including a large US pharmacy retailer that he asked us not to name. He wasn’t asked to break in, just to do an audit on all of the org’s corporate switches, routers, and firewalls.

“So, I come across this firewall,” Schloss said. …