Why You Should Use A Password Manager, And How To Get Started?

Today’s digital landscape requires you to input and store tons of your personal and financial information online. Everything from your address and phone number to banking details and credit card information is held in servers for multiple services and companies. That is a lot at risk for us personally, all being stored across the internet.

Thankfully, most companies and services online have smartened up, and really upgraded their security features and options to keep your information protected. Often, digital security is based on a password-based system that helps you login and ensures it’s only you who can access your accounts. While you’re creating password details, you’ll often be prompted to create a unique and secure password that would be very difficult for others to duplicate.

Unfortunately, if we do something completely different for every single site, it would be impossible to remember them all and effectively use the sites and services we want. Instead, many people use one password for all of their services, and that is an incredibly dangerous option. That’s where a password manager comes in.

What Is A Password Manager?

The concept of a password manager is quite simple. It’s a piece of software that stores, and manages all of your digital passwords in one highly-secure location. Password managers streamline the entire process by creating unique passwords for each site, and storing them in a single convenient location.

When you go and visit each site or service, the software will automatically input the unique password for you, so you never have to remember it. The result is passwords that keep your accounts fully secure, are stored in one easy place, and you never have to remember.

Why Should You Use A Password Manager?

Since the popularization of the internet, the world has very quickly tilted to being a digital society. More and more essential tasks are moving online, and that means more and more of your personal information will be stored online. Many companies promise security, but it’s important to take your personal digital security into your own hands as well, and a password manager is an important part of that process.

Password managers are designed to be user-friendly, save you time, and eliminate the headache of having to remember a ton of passwords. Most importantly, they’re designed to keep your passwords safe and securely stored so you can access the websites and services you need, without having to worry about a data breach.

If you choose to use one password for everything, imagine the headache you’d have on your hands if that password was compromised. Banking data, social media accounts, credit card info, social security numbers, and more, would all be compromised. If you are using a password manager, all of those passwords would be completely different, ensuring they all couldn’t be hacked.

Are Password Managers Secure?

So if a password manager stores all different unique passwords for you in one place, couldn’t that just be hacked? The short answer is – no. Just about every single password manager on the market today uses a “zero knowledge” model, which means they only store an encrypted copy of your passwords on their servers in a virtual “vault”. This vault is encrypted and is only decrypted when you access your account. This decryption process is done locally with your online browser.

This encryption ensures your passwords are never shared with the internet service provider, sent to others, or sold over the internet. It also makes certain that the only password you have to remember is the one to open your password manager. Plus, if you ever do forget the password manager password, they have impressive multi-step verification for resets that no hacker can get through.

What Password Manager Should I Choose?

With so much emphasis being put on cyber security, there are a huge number of password managers to pick from, but here are some of our favorites.

LastPass – LastPass is one of the industry leaders in password management. They offer Free and Paid accounts that work on both mobile and desktop devices. Plus, they have a built-in password generator that creates strong passwords for all your accounts. With its two-factor authentication, you can be certain LastPass is extremely secure.

Dashlane – A great option for personal or business use, Dashlane provides a simple password management solution across most devices. Its sharing options are unlimited and make giving access to employees or family members a breeze.

KeePass – If you’re not a fan of online cloud-based syncing give KeePass a look. While it also has applications for desktop and mobile devices, KeePass makes you responsible for manually syncing your own password between your device.

1Password – 1Password has a very sharp looking interface, which makes a lot of sense as it started out as a Mac-only product. 1Password has an autocomplete form built into your web browser that prompts auto logins. It also has syncing abilities that allow you easily to use iCloud and Dropbox sharing.

RoboForm – RoboForm is a simple-to-use, but elegant system. With mobile apple on Android & iOS, Roboform provides its users with an encrypted vault for not just passwords but other sensitive information. RoboForm also sends users autocomplete prompts, which make logging into your sites even easier.