Do I Need a Password Manager?

Synopsis

If you are like most people, you have many accounts that require login credentials to access. In this situation, I would recommend a password manager. Password managers work to address the following common mistakes that put you at risk:

• Recycling passwords or using similar passwords such as an incrementing number

• Using weak passwords such as “password” or “123456”

• Writing your passwords down on a sheet of paper

• Saving your password in an unencrypted file on your desktop

A password manager in today’s world is, in my opinion, a requirement if you take your information security seriously. Password managers today include many other features that make them easy and convenient to use while holding their initial goal of protecting your personal information.

For a comparison list of some of the market password managers, see the link below the PCMag’s comparison.

https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-password-managers

They all have the same basic capabilities. The main thing to consider is the additional features and price, but it is hard to go wrong with them. Also, I have moved from LastPass to Bitwarden, and the process was pretty straightforward; you can always switch to one that better suits your needs in the future.

For my thoughts on passwords, managers continue reading the rest of the post.

What is a Password Manager?

When I say password manager, I am referring to software designed to secure and organize your passwords. A password manager should be able to secure your passwords and make finding the password you need relatively easy when compared to storing your passwords on a sticky under your keyboard or in a text file named passwords on your desktop.

What is a Good Password Manager?

A password manager that fulfills the requirements mentioned above would fall under the category of “good.” Anything beyond the basic features is icing on the cake. So now it is up to the end-user to determine how much icing they want on their cake.

Most password managers will offer a browser add-on that can autofill your passwords into websites that match the website login credentials you have stored into your password manager. Most will generate your passwords to specify how complex you want the password, then copy and paste when creating a new account. I will go over some exciting features that I find pretty helpful.

What password manager do I use?

Full disclosure I have used LastPass, and I am currently using Bitwarden. I like Bitwarden, and one of the most appealing features is the ability to host your password manager on your equipment. The other password managers that I have seen do not have an option to host your password manager yourself. Another feature that I think is very helpful is adding custom fields to your stored credential records. For example, in some cases, you might have a website login that requires a username, password, and some other form of information, such as a company name. Bitwarden can tell the software that there is another field needed to log in, and it can also store and autofill that information, which is a nice feature to have. A new part that Bitwarden has is the send encrypted files to someone else. It just sends a link, and they can retrieve the file or information from Bitwarden, but it is a neat feature. I use it sometimes in my job to send passwords over email. I can restrict who can access the link and set an expiration after a certain number of accesses.

Conclusion

Everyone that has many different accounts online should strongly consider getting a password manager. Password managers help you store your passwords giving you access when you need them and alerting you to possible issues with your accounts, such as one password is used for two different accounts. There are many password managers available, and they all perform the same essential functions. You should select the password manager that offers you’re the features that best suit your situation.