Why Should We Use a Password Manager?

People ask if it is beneficial to have a password manager. Does it guarantee full protection of passwords? There are more questions that people ask about password managers:

• How safe are these applications?
• What is a good password manager?
• What should I do to get a password manager?

To answer the last question, the best people to ask are the tech-savvy ones and some of the best who really know how the password management system works are IT professionals, and among these people are those who provide custom LMS development.

For the basic steps however, we can provide them to you later in this post.

What Is a Password Manager?

Password managers are systems designed to keep passwords safe in one place. Password managers have one main function: they save and remember all passwords that a person has so he doesn’t have to.

Aside from passwords, the system is also able to store personal information in one encrypted file. All your confidential data are stored and protected from attackers who have access to your mobile device or desktop.

With that management system in place, you will not have to memorize all your passwords for different applications. Once you identify yourself to the manager by providing your Master Password, the passwords contained there are automatically fed into Web services as needed or showed to you upon request.

Benefits

Benefits of the service include:

• It enables to create unique passwords for every site that they use. This reduces instances of password re-use. Reusing a password on another site has always presented a problem. Attackers use old breached passwords to implement dictionary attacks.
• If you frequently change your passwords, it’s better for you to have a centralized place for storing passwords rather than update multiple copies of a password.
• Business passwords can be accessed only by employees who need them.
• These applications provide an auditing feature, so you can see who has accessed the password, what password was accessed, and when the access was made.
• The system is also good for disaster recovery as passwords are stored in an online password vault, assuming that you are not running the system on your servers.

How Safe Are These Applications?

No one can say it is 100% safe. Things happen. Providers may experience technical issues. Or they may stop operations for some reason. Or the encrypted passwords may be hit by some ransomware attack. You can read articles about some services that had security breaches that resulted to the stored passwords being compromised.

So, it really depends on the password manager. You will have to make sure that the provider will store all your passwords in a coded database to prevent any dubious access.

Also, bear in mind that when using such a service, what you do is put all your eggs in one basket, and all you have for your ultimate protection is your Master Password.

But you should not really be anxious. Research has shown that people are way more secure when using password managers than not having one. The practice essentially makes things a lot safer than the common habit of repurposing the same password for each service.

What Is a Good Password Manager?

Without recommending any product, here are some criteria to consider:

• Vendor: Do they have a good reputation? Do they promptly respond to security issues? Is the software actively maintained? You want to hear a strong YES for all three questions.
• Vault: You want the provider to explain to you their algorithm and the strength they use. You also want that even when there is no internet access, you have local access to the vault.
• Master Password: You want to see a password-strengthening algorithm that is ultra-reliable, because the vault is just as good as the key used to secure it.
• Universal: Ideally, you want all your passwords to be available on any device you are using.
• User-friendly: There are services that allow the use of fingerprint for unlocking the manager, which makes for a short work.
• Large passwords: The manager allows larger passwords with multiple characters. Large passwords are next to impossible for anyone to guess.
• Autofill: This feature automatically fills the password. You don’t have to bother typing your passwords whenever you need to access a site.

Steps to Getting a Password Manager

The steps are fairly simple:

• Choose a provider. Access their online site and create your account with them.
• Then come up with a Master Password. Include numbers, capital letters and special characters.
• You can now use the service. Your password manager will automatically supply the password specific to the site you are logging into.

When choosing a provider, you might want to check if they have obtained some certification. Certifications for these software include ISO 27001 and SOC 2.

You might also want to know who are using the products you are considering to use. Many of the top password managers are used by large enterprises and even government agencies. Cybersecurity entities and security professionals even use them for business and personal use.