Do you know what the 3 most common passwords were in 2013?
- 123456
- password
- 12345678
Why would anyone use a password that is so easily overcome by someone trying to hack into their account? Simple. We have too many passwords that we need to live in our online lives. Websites, programs, computers, phones…. There are so many times a day we need passwords sometimes it’s just easier to put in something anyone can remember.
Raise your hand if you have a pad of paper somewhere with a bunch of websites and passwords all written down, scratched out and re-written because you couldn’t remember a password and had to reset it. Again.
I started using LastPass years ago and have never looked back. I don’t use it on my phone or iPad, but it is a vital part of my daily life so I think it makes a great App of the Month. LastPass is a freeware password manager (there is a premium version too) that helps you keep track of all of your passwords. It will even keep your passwords ready for you on multiple computers if you use more than one. Once you’ve signed up for a LastPass account and installed the app, LastPass will ask you every time you log into a website if you would like it to remember your password. Now, most browsers will do this already, but if you use more than one browser, or computer, LastPass will keep all of your passwords unified across all of them. LastPass keeps your passwords in your LastPass Vault and can automatically fill in your information the next time you visit a website. You can store multiple usernames/passwords for one website too. Once you get to the website, pick the login you want to use and it fills the appropriate information in for you.
Is it secure?
Passwords and data are encrypted and decrypted locally before syncing with LastPass. Your key never leaves your device, and is never shared with LastPass. Your data stays accessible only to you. If you forget a password you can sign into your LastPass Vault and lookup any website that is saved and all of the information associated with it. All of the data is encrypted with 256-bit AES Encryption.
Are your passwords secure?
Ideally, passwords should be a mix of letters (capital and lower-case), numbers and symbols. Think about all of your passwords. Do they meet these basic standards? If they don’t it’s probably because passwords like that are hard to remember. Do you use the same password for multiple websites? This is another bad habit to break. If a hacker gets your password for one site they will most definitely try it on your other websites.
This is what your password should look like. A really great feature of LastPass is that it can generate secure passwords for you like this and then remember them for you. You set the specifics of how long the password should be (up to 100 characters) and which types of characters to use. Check this one out:
0QwXlyobqBzmFndFYL5xCu%687N*Um4DlKfreXwxINBim5TxRN15J%C0AZ5abK2yg2n7gpyKvj2IzSbE0K0tbXxDfF9$AbvJDIY6
Try and remember that one. With LastPass you could have a password like that and not have to remember it.
If you have trouble keeping track of all of your passwords I’d highly recommend trying out LastPass. It’s free and easy to use so you don’t have anything to lose by trying it out. You can sign up for an account and download the app at lastpass.com. Even if you don’t let LastPass create super secure passwords, it will remember what ever your password is. Even if it’s one of the top 3 bad passwords of the year.