Password Security. Everyone’s favorite subject right? No, not really, not even close. However I felt it was an important enough subject that I should sit down and write about it.
So how many online accounts do you have? Me? I have over 400. That’s nuts right. We have individual accounts for everything online. If you think about it, you don’t just have your personal accounts, but you have ones you use for work or business as well. That starts to add up fast.
How secure are your accounts? Do you use the same password for all your accounts? Why? Most people will reuse the same password over and over again because it’s easy. It’s difficult to remember 400 passwords, so lets just make them all the same. Well unfortunately that is a very insecure way of doing things. And no 123456789 or password123 are not good passwords.
Do you use 2FA (2 Factor Authentication)? You know, that added annoying step that when you login, it requires you to enter a second code of numbers.
Did you know there’s an easier, free way, or paid to handle passwords? Password managers are a thing. And they make handling and securing your accounts much easier. There are many out there:
- Lastpass
- Keypass
- 1Password
- Dashlane
- and many more
Our preference and one we have been using for the last 3 years for personal and business is Lastpass. It works with Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iPhone and iPad. Browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Edge and Opera. With password managers you only have to remember one master password. You can randomly generate secure passwords for all your accounts and setup 2FA easily to get your account secured. We are currently paying for Last Pass Teams so that we are able to share company passwords between us. They have a free version that is really good for your personal use, or a paid version starting at $3 per month. You can find out more here https://www.lastpass.com/plans
I highly recommend in today’s world that you use a good password manager.