Password Managers

 I saw an article in the Wall Street Journal today on a topic I have been thinking a lot about.  You can stop laughing.  I do read the WSJ and I actually think about stuff.  Okay, well, I have a thought from time to time. Sometimes they’re even useful.  I should probably write them down.

 

Anyway, the WSJ points out that (1) using the same password for everything is a very bad idea; and (2) most people have so many sites they have to log into that memorizing multiple passwords isn’t practical.  They’re right on both points.  In addition, as I’ve pointed out before, you also do not want passwords that can be guessed, which means complicated and hard to memorize passwords are best.

 

The good news is that there is a solution to all three problems.  They’re called password managers.  You only need to memorize one password and that password is never used anywhere except with the password manager itself.  After that, you generate a unique and ridiculously complex password for every site you go to and never use the same one twice.  Even if someone gets your password for one site, it won’t make any difference anywhere else.  All they have is the password to that one site because it’s the only place you ever use that particular password.  The password manager, which can be conveniently put right on your phone, tracks all of it. 

 

After doing some research a few months ago, I started using an app called “LastPass.”  It lives up to its name.   I didn’t even have to memorize the password I use to access it because, so long as I’m using the iPhone, I can open it with a fingerprint scan.  It allows me to store usernames and passwords for an unlimited number of sites.  I can generate completely random passwords up to 64 characters long – which is great for bank passwords.  The longer they are, the harder they are to crack.  It would probably take months, even with a super computer, to crack a 64 character password.

 

If I ever need to access the username or password for a site I’ve saved, I can just copy and paste right out of the app.  And the app will erase the “clipboard” after so many seconds or minutes so that the copied password can’t be found that way, either. 

 

Usernames and passwords are here to stay.  Until there is a better way, you want to be smart about them.  Don’t make it easy on the bad guys by using the same name and password for every site.  Get yourself a password manager and use it.   Just search for “password manager” on whatever app store you have and pick one.