So many websites, so many apps, so many things to help us save time online, but are you using a different password for all of them? We certainly hope so, it might be easier to have the one or two trusty passwords for everything, but that makes hackers lives easier too, and let’s be honest, it’s so time consuming to come back from a hack that it’s harder not to! The bottom line is that using one password everywhere is a risk you simply can’t allow, well that and storing them all in an excel spreadsheet, just don’t, please.
So now that we have all gone and changed 58 passwords, how the hell are you going to remember them all? There are only so many combinations of letters, numbers and special characters you can hold in your head at once. The good news is, there are some excellent password management programs around that can help you manage all of this. All you really need to remember is one strong memorable password, for that app, simple. Databases of your login details are stored and essentially you don’t even need to know what they are, the app does it all for you.
Apps such as LastPass use strong encryption to keep your database of passwords safe and secure and will also synchronise your database over multiple devices. You will be able to use strong and different passwords on all of the sites you use … without having to remember them, bonus.
LastPass is free for a single computer and requires a subscription to have access on all of your devices, including your phone so it’s a great ‘use anywhere’ solution.
RoboForm is another option and also free for a single computer. It requires a subscription to have it available on all of your devices and allows you to click on a link in your browser and have it automatically go to the website and log you in.
We are going to be using passwords to protect our online presence for the foreseeable future, and thousands of passwords are stolen every day, so we think it’s more than worth a few minutes of extra time to protect yourself.
