LastPass is a tool that I use literally every day. It is a password management tool that stores all passwords in one place. I prefer LastPass to other password managers, mostly because it is free, but also because it is based in “the cloud”. I am more than satisfied with the free features of LastPass but LastPass also has a premium service for $12 per year.
A cloud based service for managing passwords might bother some people because they fear the security of information stored in the cloud. Since I am not a security expert I can offer little consolidation on that issue, however, I personally feel that it is a whole lot safer than using an easy to remember password that is subject to dictionary attacks or brute force attacks. The other thing I hear people doing is using the same password on every site, also not secure. LastPass is secure, it uses AES-256 bit encryption to store passwords. Most experts deem this uncrackable using the tools of today. (source: Wikipedia)
The advantage to having a web service storing passwords is that they are available everywhere. I used to use 1Password, which is a very slick OS X app, but the problem is that all of my passwords were locked safely away on my computer. Why is this a problem? If I was on another computer and I wanted to log into one of the uncountable places on the web that require a password then I couldn’t. 1Password does have a new feature in 1Password 3 that adds the ability to access passwords online but I opted to use LastPass instead of paying for 1Password 3 then paying more for the 1Password iPhone app.
Using LastPass, I can be anywhere and access all of my passwords from the LastPass website. If I am at home on my own computer then I use the LastPass Chrome extension to fill in my passwords or the LastPass bookmarklet on my iPhone. All of these passwords are available to me with one, extremely secure, master password.
LastPass will also generate a secure password for you whenever you sign up for a new service. I have LastPass generate a 16 character password for me that is unique to each site and is not found in any dictionary. It is made up of letters – that are both upper and lower case – and numbers. This is an example password: “xqem4lt5S5U6x7tT”. As you can see, I would never be able to remember these passwords if I didn’t have some kind of password manager.
Since it is available everywhere, I have a few words of caution. First, and foremost, make sure that your LastPass master password is the most secure string of letters and numbers that you could possibly remember. If you have all of these ultra-secure passwords stored away in LastPass and the password that you use to get to them is found on the first page of the dictionary then you might as well just put them on a website in plain view. Second, never log into LastPass on a computer that may have questionable security, i.e. shared computers or Internet cafés. Finally, and the most obvious, never tell anyone what your password is. The latter seems obvious but I am still amazed how many people freely tell other people vital passwords.
The task of moving to a password manager may appear daunting but the added security is well worth it. This is truly a simplistic process after you have taken the time to change your passwords to something more secure and you have secured them with LastPass.
So, what password managers are you using? Why? Leave a comment below.
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Hello & Welcome! My name is Matt and I’m a Canadian living in Taipei, Taiwan. Here you’ll find me musing about social networking, web services, and internet business. While you’re here, look at the 
