Password manager software can seriously improve your productivity. Generally speaking, anyone that uses a smart phone or computer, has dozens (and sometimes even hundreds) of accounts for online services, with many different usernames and passwords to remember.
Keeping track of your passwords is difficult
Sometimes you can get lucky and use the same username and password for a handful of websites, but then there’s a fair chance one or more of them will hit you with the message “your password is about to expire, please reset it”.
Oh, and it can’t be the same as the last 10 passwords you’ve entered. This is especially true if you’re juggling many accounts in a corporate role, with different systems for suppliers, customers and internally.
Information and account security is highly sensitive
In today’s technological world, account security is of the utmost importance to the vast majority of “quality” online service providers. Particularly those that store your personally identifiable information (PII).
Top tier companies have made big strides in recent years to implement more robust password policies. This is not only out of choice, but also due to advances in rules and regulations issued by public authorities, requiring companies to take extra care with how they manage their users’ data. Take GDPR as the most notable regulation impacting Europe.
All of these improvements to information security and data protection, often leave us users needing to remember a lot more character, number and symbol combinations.
Although, it must be said, with significant data and online theft stories not uncommon, we need to appreciate that a strong and complex password provides Internet thieves with less chance of compromising our data.
What does a password manager tool offer?
Think of it like a structured, well-presented and (most importantly) secure digital notepad, that lets you seamlessly log and locate all of the credentials for your online accounts.
Until you’ve used one for a short while, it’s difficult to gauge the real benefits. When you get going with a powerful password manager tool, there’s no going back — no more needing to sift through parts of your distant memory for long and complex passwords; no more selecting the “Forgot Password” links; no more time wasted doing either of those activities continuously.
Password managers improve your productivity from a day-to-day work perspective, while raising the security of your online activity.
Password manager of choice: LastPass
There are various types of password manager software available from different vendors: mobile apps, browser extensions, websites, desktop applications, or a combination of those.
The password manager tool I have adopted and continued to use in recent years, is LastPass. Surprisingly (given all the features it has), it’s free to use. LastPass does have premium subscription options, but most users will find everything they need in the free version.
Beyond the main use case of a password manager tool, other features of LastPass include:
- Help with creating new passwords
- Indicating whether your passwords are strong enough
- Logging of non-password details, such as user IDs and PIN codes
- Auto-populating secure forms with personal information, such as credit card numbers and addresses
- Sharing passwords with other people (if you happen to find a use case for that)
Check out this short video for a glance at some of the core LastPass features.
LastPass is available to use via several platforms, however I’ve found that the iOS app and Google Chrome desktop extension work very well as a combination.
Start being more productive in managing the security of your online life
Head to LastPass and check out the free version. It actually includes a 30-day trial of its premium features. No credit card details are required, and if after 30 days you’re not interested in continuing to use the premium features, then your account and access will continue simply without them.
Although LastPass is a feature-rich password manager tool, both the mobile app and browser extension are simple to use. Once you have a handful of active usernames and passwords stored, you’ll be comfortable with its interfaces within a few days.
What do you think of password manager applications and LastPass? Any other password manager tool that you’d recommend instead? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.
Originally published at https://www.lessbizy.com on January 24, 2021.
