Are you still using those sticky notes and notepad files to save your passwords? There might be some who still write their passwords on a piece of paper while some of you might be storing those passwords on cloud drives like Google Drive, Dropbox, Mega.nz, etc.
Nearly 90% of the websites that we visit on a daily basis require you to enter some kind of login details. Some people are tired of creating complex passwords and they end up using super-easy passwords like 1234567, qwerty, abc123, etc.
What if, any of these online accounts get hacked? You must have heard about several instances of major security breaches in the past where accounts of individuals have been hacked, and their passwords been misused.
It’s high time that you ditch those conventional password storage methods and look for safer alternatives and reliable options for password storage so that you don’t have to worry about the security issues anymore. The safe and reliable option we are referring to is called Password Manager, which is one of the are several password storage techniques and tools available online.
In this article, we will have a look at what exactly is a password manager, what are its benefits and why is it important these days to make use of a password manager for storing your passwords.
Password managers are one of the best defense mechanisms which prevent your passwords from getting stolen or hacked. Besides this, they help you generate strong, secure, and unique passwords. This way you don’t have to struggle trying to come up with those clever cryptic passwords and trying to remember them.
Most of us have several types of accounts that we use on a daily basis like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, Gmail and much more. With the help of an easy-to-use and secure password manager, you will be able to manage all your passwords in one place even if you are using them across different devices or platforms like Android, iOS, macOS, tablets, etc.
What exactly are Password Managers and Why are they so Important?
Password manager is a kind of digitally encrypted vault that safeguards your personal passwords and other login credentials that you use to access apps, websites, and other services. They also help you keep all sensitive data secured in one place.
“Never reuse your passwords!” you might have heard this statement several times from cybersecurity experts as well as tech guys. Most people tend to use weak passwords and they reuse the same passwords across multiple platforms which is not recommended. You should never reuse one password on other platforms as there are high chances of security breaches, identity theft, and password leaks, wherein your login credentials are exposed to hackers and if they have malicious intent, they might use email IDs and passwords which you use on other platforms and this might create some serious problems for you. So, if you are using the same login details everywhere and unfortunately your data gets leaked, then that breach will give a chance to these culprits to access your platforms and make illegal use of it.
If you are using a unique password, you can be rest assured that even if any of your sites gets hacked, that password won’t be applicable to other platforms, thereby preventing further disaster.
Here are some of the things that you need to keep in mind as a best practice while creating passwords.
- Don’t use your kid’s birth date or your native place name as password.
- Give up on the practice of writing down passwords on a piece of paper.
- Use hard-to-guess passwords that contain a combination of various types like special characters, numbers, uppercase, and lowercase letters. But make sure that you remember it.
- Choose a password that’s long enough at least 12-16 characters long
- Avoid using your own name, family person’s name, or dictionary words as your passwords
Every single complex character that you add to your password makes it even more difficult to attack even if they make use of brute-force methods.
Password cracking tools have become increasingly affordable these days. With the help of such tools hackers can try out thousands of password combinations per second and that is the reason it has become increasingly important to make use of password managers.
There are primarily three types of password managers:
- Locally installed applications
- Online Password managers
- Several portable hardware keys that are used for authenticating access to particular websites.
Password managers also act as a strong defense against phishing and pharming. Some password managers also have the feature of auto-filling your passwords provided you have enabled that particular feature. While doing the initial set up, you can enter your login credentials and choose if you want them to save it for later use. Password manager will store your login credentials so every time you try to log in, then you will see those details pre-filled. Password managers basically retrieve those complex passwords.
One of the advantages of a password manager is its portability. You can access the password manager from various devices, be it your smartphone or desktop. All that you need is a good, secure web browser and a good quality internet connection. The only effort that you need to take is remembering the password of the password manager tool.
There are several paid as well as free third-party password managers available online that can safeguard your privacy and safety. In case you don’t want to spend much on password managers, we have found a free password manager called “Passcamp” and has several amazing features. They also have a paid subscription that provides advanced features.
An average data breach will cost your company $3.96 billion. It was found that almost 47% of the data breaches were caused by employee negligence or human error. If you are an organization who is looking for the highest levels of security for your data then you should surely try out their enterprise plan.
Passcamp is an easy-to-use password management tool using which you can easily store, manage, and share (if needed) with your team members. Using Passcamp you can manage the passwords of your team members in one place.
Using Passcamp you can easily access all of your saved passwords and make use of autosave and auto-fill features with the use of a single click. Besides this you can assign user roles and assign permissions at various levels for easy access and secure sharing.
Passcamp makes use of the most advanced encryption technologies out there like AES-256 symmetric encryption, RSA asymmetric encryption, Zero-knowledge proof, SRP 6A authentication, 2-factor authentication, PBKDF2 algorithm, SHA-256 hashing, and Centralized blockchain so you can rest assured that your sensitive data is completely secure. They have a free version as well as an enterprise plan for password management.
The only downside of password managers is that if the hackers somehow get hold of the main password then they will get access to all of your passwords.
