Matt Willoughby
October 12, 2020
Recent studies show that the average person has 70-80 online accounts. It seems almost impossible to remember unique passwords for every single account. Unfortunately, this often leads us to re-use a handful of our most memorable passwords across many of our accounts. Password re-use can be a major risk because a compromised password may allow attackers to access multiple sites using the same credentials.
Password Manager software facilitates storage and organization for your vast collection of passwords making it easier to utilize unique passwords across your various sites and applications.
Passwords that are long and complex are less likely to be cracked by attackers. Unfortunately, these types of passwords can be very difficult to memorize and many times end up on a sticky-note or stored in an unprotected text file on your computer. Many password management applications offer features that will randomly generate and securely store long and complex passwords for you.
Despite being more secure, long passwords can be very cumbersome to type. Many times, they have to be re-entered because of typing mistakes, which can be extremely frustrating. Fortunately, most password management software solutions allow your passwords to be auto-populated or copied/pasted which significantly reduces the amount of time you are stuck on a login page.
If you decide to utilize a password management application, be sure to pick one that incorporates a “Zero Knowledge” policy. This means that your passwords are encrypted on the company’s storage servers and that only you can decrypt and view them.
Many password managers allow you to securely share passwords with other users. This especially comes in handy in a workplace environment that uses shared credentials for their site and applications, but can also be useful for families, friend-circles, or clubs.