Almost everything these days requires a password and trying to keep track of them all is challenging. Discussing all regarding password managers, why you need a password manager, and how to create a strong, memorable master password for your password manager.
𝗟𝗲𝘁’𝘀 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺
The average person has to juggle over 190 passwords between their work and personal lives online. So many passwords are too easily forgotten, leading to bad practices that put your security and privacy at risk.
Many people default to what’s easiest – shorter, easy-to-remember passwords that you then reuse across multiple sites. This creates a vulnerability because if a data breach occurs on any of those sites, your passwords can be leaked on the Dark Web. All a hacker needs to know is one username and password combination to be able to try or guess at other passwords for other sites. Before you know it, one breach can lead to multiple of your online accounts being hacked.
Making sure each of your online accounts has a long, strong, and unique password that can’t be easily guessed creates a higher level of security, but it’s also nearly impossible to maintain without the help of purpose-built security tools. This is why you need a password manager.
𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽𝘀
But you can’t stop creating complex passwords. Strong passwords alone are no longer good enough to secure your online accounts from hacking, impersonation, or data theft. For that, you also need to turn on an added layer of protection called multifactor authentication.
Multifactor authentication (MFA), requires that you use two or more methods of identification to access your online accounts. This means a stolen password is, by itself, not enough to grant a stranger access to your accounts.
MFA codes are sometimes sent via text message or through a secure authentication app on your mobile phone. MFA is also sometimes referred to as two-factor authentication or 2FA, and the concept behind them is the same.
𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗮 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗜𝘀 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁
You might be wondering why you need a password manager if you can keep track of your passwords another way – a book, a sticky note, a clever pattern that helps you remember each site’s password.
A password manager is a virtual, online vault that keeps and protects your credentials and passwords. It keeps them organized and accessible wherever you are (at home, in the office, or on the go) and can be stored safely encrypted on your computer and/or phone. To access this vault, you need to set a “master password”, which is the last password that you must memorize.
It would be impossible to overstate just how important the security of your online accounts is to your finances, security, privacy, and reputation. Hacks might start online, but they have serious real-world consequences Keeping your online accounts safe in a password manager will help you protect this most sensitive account information.
We hope this article helps you understand why everyone needs a password manager and gives you some tips to consider to get started today.