Some can say that one of the most important aspects of any device is its password. Ever since the early ages of technology passwords are a necessity. Unlike the early years of the internet, in today’s technology it’s rare that you must remember more than a handful of passwords. The mistake that too many people make in today’s age is that they make one or two passwords and use them for anything that requires a password.  Having the same password for more than one or two things is setting yourself up to get hacked. If someone gets a hold of one of your passwords and you use that password for everything, you’re a risking getting almost every aspect of your life compromised. This is called a data breach domino effect. It is proven that about 80 percent of data breaches are cause by weak and over used passwords.

            Over the past twenty years, we have been trained to use passwords that are difficult for people to remember off the top of their heads, but are very easy for computers to guess. You should always change a generated password to something that you will personally remember but not something super easy like “12345.” You should use something with a good mixture of upper- and lower-case letters, at least one number, and at least one symbol. Most of the time when using a website, they require you to have an account to use their services. When you make an account, most websites won’t let you create an account if you don’t have strong enough password. We know all too well that remembering a long list of passwords is a tedious thing and that it would be easier to just use one or two passwords. Now what would you say if you found out that there is a way you can have something to remember all your passwords for you? Well, that is exactly what a password manager is.

What is a Password Manager?

        A password manager is a system that is designed to store and remember your personal information. It stores all your passwords and their corresponding websites or applications. The password manager can also generate passwords for you when you are signing up for a website or application. The database that these passwords are stored in is a very secured system and they are all protected by a master password. Once you put all your passwords and information into the manager the only password you must remember is the master password for the manager. After this you can access all your passwords in one easy place.

LastPass

            A reliable password manager that we recommend is LastPass. LastPass includes plugins for multiple web browsers and apps for all different types of smartphones and comes with a web interface for your computers. All personal information can be stored in LastPass and can be transferred to any devices that supports the program. LastPass provides various services to ensure that you have security like a two-factor authentication. Unlike other password managers with LastPass you can use the user-set password hint for using your master password to log into LastPass.

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Kori Bennett