What’s My Password Again?
We’ve all been there — you decide to join a new social networking site and you choose a password you can easily remember, but a message pops up saying, “your password has to be at least 25 characters long and it must contain numbers, letters, symbols, a blood sample, and the secret formula in the Krabby Patty”.
How am I supposed to create different but equally strong passwords for each one of my accounts, let alone remember them all? The best solution: a password manager.
Essentially, password managers are an easier and more secure alternative for saving important personal information within the cloud. Password managers allow you to store the login information you created for all of the websites you use and they can help you create new, stronger passwords and stores them so you don’t have to remember them. There are many different password management programs that offer similar resources. 1Password, KeyChain, and Dashlane are commonly used password managers.
1Password is an example of a password manager that creates one single ‘master password’ — a long, uncommon combination of numbers and letters — which acts as a one stop shop for all of your information. Instead of trying to remember every single one of your passwords, all you need to remember is 1 — the master password. Because 1Password, like other types of password managers, uses a form of cloud computing, they allow access across multiple devices. So, your passwords and other important data can be accessed from your laptop, your smart phone, tablets, etc., anytime, anywhere.
Although 1Password is definitely more secure than traditional password management, it is important to note a few security practices that should be followed to ensure the safety of your personal and private information. Because 1Password has the ability to save all of your valuable data, it is essential that you keep your master password safe. If someone were to get ahold of your master password, they would have access to all of your data, which could potentially include credit card numbers, the code for your house alarm, banking information and answers to security questions. Keeping your master password safe is extremely important.
Some password managers are available through your browser. Internet browsers like Chrome, Firefox and Safari all have their own versions of password managers, but these are not as effective as they are unencrypted, unlike external password managers like 1Password which are encrypted (Wired).
Many people believe that simply writing down their passwords is enough. The problem with manually keeping your passwords on pen and paper is that they can be lost, stolen (especially within major companies) or potentially destroyed. This is a risky alternative. It’s better to have a password manager because you can access your passwords from anywhere. Unless you’re bringing the paper with the list of all of your passwords on it everywhere you go, it’s definitely not as effective.
A common mistake when it comes to password management is the idea that “I don’t need to write it down, I’ll remember it”.
Unless you have some kind of insane, long-term photographic memory, you won’t remember the password to your Club Penguin account that you made when you were 8 so you can play it one last time before it gets shut down (I learned this the hard way).
Another common issue is using the exact same password for everything. This makes you an easy target for hackers and more vulnerable to loss of important data.
Basically, if you want to keep your data as safe as possible, get your hands on a password manager A.S.A.P.
