More complex passwords and safe storing with Password Managers
Back in the days when the Internet was starting, people only needed to remember a few personal passwords for a few applications, and that was it. Today, each of us has to remember 191 passwords on average, according to a study from 2021 conducted by LastPass.
The average numbers only refer to work-related passwords, so we probably have at least half as many personal passwords to remember.
A password manager is a complex software that memorizes all passwords for you, ensuring that you have access to all your accounts by only remembering the vault password.
The Best Password Manager App for this year
Each year, we make an effort to put the list of best password-managing app providers that will make your professional and personal life less complicated. Keep reading if you want to know what those apps are!
Why Do You Need a Password Manager?
Before password managing apps, most people were using the same password for various sites, which is a total no-do from today’s point of view. Simple and repetitive passwords, for example, your date of birth, are undergoing cyber-attacks and are easy to guess by whomever who has ever seen your ID. Since cybersecurity has drastically evolved in the last two decades, every account we’re trying to open requires a complex set of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. As more people are working remotely or searching for online opportunities to make their living, they visit more sites and create more passwords. Remembering all of them is not an option unless you have superpowers.
Writing them down on a piece of paper doesn’t work either because you will most likely spill coffee on it while working. Saving them in a spreadsheet can work well, but it will take you some time until you remember in which folder you have the password file. To be honest, you’ll forget to save half of the passwords because you’re too busy.
Enough said, the only realistic solution for this issue is installing the best password manager app that will do all the work for you. Safe and secure password storage away from the greedy eyes of hackers and organized cybercriminals.
A password manager is a software that manages and stores credentials and passwords without you having to worry about your security. Using a password manager is a carefree way to do your job without thinking about what could go wrong. The only thing you need to remember (or write down) is the master password that unlocks your password vault and displays all you need to see in a second.
What Is a Password Manager?
Password Manager is an app that remembers all your passwords for you. In other words, it manages and secures the hundreds of passwords you’re creating while opening different accounts. Even when you encounter a free password manager, give it a try after researching it first. You have probably noticed that websites require stronger passwords each time, and they disable your account aperture unless you meet the secure password requirements.
By typing down an illogical mixture of upper and lower cases with symbols and numbers in between, we face the problem of forgetting it right away. Well, someone was smart enough to make our lives easier and create a password manager app that will do all the hard work for us while we can focus on work. So, a password manager is a vault where you keep your valuables (passwords), and you only have to remember one master pass to open it. It doesn’t get any simpler than this, so if you don’t already have your password keeper, it’s time to do so ASAP.
What Does a Password Manager Do?
Password manager apps are the best option for companies of any size and dozens of employees. If you’re a company manager that works with multiple clients and need to find your way around all the users’ accounts, there’s no doubt you need a password manager to assist you with the maze of strange symbol combinations.
Unless you’re a software engineer, you won’t understand the encrypted language developers use to create password-managing apps. In the end, that’s the whole point of organizing and securing your passwords, to keep them locked and impossible to decipher. What a password manager does is allowing to sleep calmly at night without worrying about your multiple bank accounts and clients’ confidential data. Every company that works with multiple parties and wants to increase its cyber security must use a high-end password manager app for increased protection and sustained work.
Password Manager Meaning
Password manager is a complex program designed to protect your online accounts and files by securing them with one master password. All your sensitive information is stored in a vault that no one but you can open and use the necessary passwords. If you want to understand how a password manager works, imagine it as a safe where you keep all your valuable documents, cash, jewelry, and papers.
Each of those objects is a complex password you’ve created and can’t remember. Now imagine you want to wear, let’s say, a pearl necklace that’s in the safe. All you need to do is know the master password to your safe and take the necklace out. There’s no need to remember the serial number of the jewelry. We hope you got a clear picture of how the password manager works.
Main Features of a Password Manager
There are plenty of features to look at when choosing the best password manager, and most of them are related to security matters. We’ve compiled a list of the main features of password manager programs that you should consider when selecting what’s best for your online safety.
Password Strength Reports
If you’re opting for the best password manager, you will surely get a program that sends reports about your password strength. The master password can also be a target of cyberattacks, so your manager is programmed to alert you when a possible threat is overlooking your passwords.
Automatic Password Sync Across Multiple Devices
There’s no doubt that we all hate it when a password we used to open a social media account years ago on the laptop isn’t saved on another device. The problem is not in retyping the password; the problem is forgetting it. Password manager apps help with this issue as well.
The program doesn’t only protect your passwords from hackers, but it also syncs between multiple devices you’re using. The best password manager offers automatic password syncing, so you should go for that one.
Two-Factor Authentication
One of the most important traits to look for when choosing a password manager program is two-factor authentication because this means double security. If an intruder guesses one secret question, they could never have the security code sent to you via text message or the other way around. Make sure that your password manager offers ultimate protection of your files and online data.
End to End Encryption
When a password manager offers end-to-end encryption, this means that you are the only one with a key to unlock your data, and no hacker could ever decrypt it.
Secure Your Vault Location
As you already know, password managers operate with vaults to keep your passwords and data safe. However, the vault itself needs a safe location without third-party access. Make sure that the device that you install your program on has a security key that only you know.
Benefits of Using a Password Manager
Although you won’t find a free password manager if you’re looking for the best product on the market, these programs come at affordable prices. The main goal, after all, is to take care of customers’ data security and provide synced passwords across the network of devices. There are plenty of benefits of using a password manager, whether you’re an individual or a company owner. Let’s take a closer look at how these programs can benefit you and your business.
You Don’t Have to Memorize Your Passwords
While this statement is completely true, you still have to memorize one password to access your vault, and that’s your master password. If you select a cloud-based password manager, you can access your vault from any device you want as long as you remember the master password.
Password Managers Can Generate Highly-Secured Passwords
Another benefit that you will get from using a password manager is that it will spare you from creating a password in the first place. The program will ask you if you want to type in your password or use an auto-generated alphanumeric one that your password manager suggests. These are long and impossible to guess, so if you decide to use one of those, you will be happy that your password manager memorizes it for you.
Password Managers Can Alert You to Phishing Sites
Phishing scams consist of spam emails ‘pretending’ to be legit emails from your family members, coworkers, companies you work with, and friends. These scam emails have a fake sender address that looks familiar to you, and when you click to open it, there’s a link that you, logically, click on again (remember, it appears like an email from a familiar sender.) After opening the link from the fake email, you are redirected to data-stealing sites that harvest login credentials from unprotected users. So, if you use the best password manager, it will automatically block the phishing sites and keep your password vault safe.
Your Passwords Are Safe Even After You’re Gone
There’s a thing called digital inheritance, which means that after you pass away, the designated beneficiaries will gain access to your password vault. Not anyone can’t claim your master password to the password manager service. Additional documents like wills and testaments are required to prove the beneficiaries of your estate.
Password Managers Save Time
Imagine urgently shopping for an airline ticket to help your ill parent get on time for surgery. Would you have time to look up your card, fill in the details, and all that fuss? Of course not. Password managing programs have an auto-fill option that fills in all your credentials with just one click. It saves time when making quick purchases, online shopping, crypto trading, auctions, and other situations when you need rapid access to your funds and auto-fill assistance. Nevertheless, the auto-fill option is not only referring to online shopping. We also use it when we need to save time on typing names and email addresses over and over again.
Best Password Managers Can Sync Across Different Operating Systems
If you thought that syncing between different operating systems was impossible, you’re wrong. The best password managers are not only protecting users’ data, but also syncing all the devices. If you have iOS at work and use Windows at home, your password manager will swiftly sync your passwords that you won’t even notice that you’ve changed operating systems. Also, if you use multiple browsers such as Google, Microsoft Edge, Safari, or Firefox, they are all compatible with the password manager syncing, so you are fully protected.
They Protect Your Identity
Password managers can protect your identity, and here’s how: When creating various accounts across the web, we tend to use the same password over again in order to remember it. As you already learned in this article, using the same passwords is a horrible mistake, so your best bet is to let the password manager create tough and long passwords for each site you’re using so your accounts remain safe and theft-proof.
Let’s say you have the same passwords all over the place, and one of your accounts gets hacked. You are then jeopardizing all other accounts (banks, social media, crypto wallets, insurance, booking sites, etc.) that share the same password. In this way, password managers protect your identity by blocking hackers from stealing your sign-in credentials and user data. Even if one of your passwords gets hacked (which is impossible with the best password manager), the rest of your accounts will remain safe because they all have different passwords generated by your program.
Set Security Protocols and Logins
If you’re running an organization, a password manager can assist you with setting security protocols for your employees that will increase the overall safety of confidential data and documents. You can also use the two-step authentication that most password managing programs provide to enhance the security of your organization furthermore.
Which Companies/People Should Use a Password Manager?
Using a password management program can increase the cybersecurity of any company, especially the ones working with multiple clients and a high number of employees. By creating unique and strong passwords, your company will receive protection from unwanted hackers and intruders, alerting you every time someone tries to steal your valuable data, especially banking details. There are numerous benefits for companies suing password managing software, and in many cases, big organizations get a free password manager after a year-long subscription.
Increased Productivity
As a business owner, you must use password managing apps, not only to protect your company’s data but also to increase your employees’ productivity. If this doesn’t make sense, just think of how many times have your employees slowed down work with the ‘lost my password’ excuse? Cut all the possibilities of slowing down your employees’ productivity because of a lost password.
Securing Credit Card Details for Small and Middle Size Businesses
Small and middle-size business owners make their own payments most of the time. Of course, if there’s an accountant, they deal with it, but the majority of small businesses can’t afford that luxury, so the owner makes all the due payments. If you’re in a position to do many tasks for your business, it’s super-easy to have a password manager that auto-fills and secures your credit card details. It saves you tons of time, plus, you don’t have to give your company credit card number to your employees.
Activity Log Reports
Another enormous benefit for companies that use password manager programs is that they track every login to your accounts and create reports that you can check at any time. With this activity, you can always see who and when is logging in to your software, which prevents malware sites and intruders from harming your data.
Preventing Data Breach
A data breach exposes sensitive and protected data to an unauthorized party, which is every company’s greatest nightmare. It doesn’t matter if your company has two or 200 hundred employees, you need to protect your confidential data by increasing cyber security. The best way to do so is to engage with a password manager application that will provide your company with the extra security of all passwords, thus protecting your sensitive data.
You Can’t Get Locked Out of an Application
If you didn’t finish all your tasks at work, but you have already turned off the desk computer, don’t worry, because you can continue working from home from a different device. Password manager programs sync between devices, so all the accounts and apps you use on your PC will automatically log in from your laptop or tablet. The best password managers are suitable for Windows, iOS, Android, and Mac.
Protecting Personal Files and Parental Control
Besides being extra safe for all-size businesses, password manager software is an excellent choice for parental control. When people hear password manager, they immediately think of enterprise managing passwords, but it is also practical for regular family use. If you want to prevent your kids from picking into your files or sending out angry emails to your coworkers just to prank you, the best thing you can do is to contract a password manager that will keep all accounts out of the reach of naughty family members.
Summary
Password manager applications are the best thing you can do for data protection, whether you’re an individual with multiple web accounts or a company owner with hundreds of employees. Save time by memorizing only one master password that will grant you access to the password vault, securely storing all your private and work passwords in one safe spot.
Choose the best password manager for your company and enjoy a secure and top-guarded web environment.
In the end, it’s totally up to you on which password manager app you’re going to choose, depending on your personal or your company needs. A password protection system is a must for every individual or business owner. Don’t waste more time, and get yours today.
Author
Matija Kolaric
Show all posts from Matija Kolaric
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- Who?We are online security experts: Our team of online security experts provides practical tips and advice on protecting yourself from cybercriminals online.
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