How Do Password Managers Work?

Wouldn't it be nice if everyone was just honest 100 percent of the time. Well okay actually though that could have unforeseen consequences but it would at least relieve us of the hassle of keeping track of tons of password security questions and Pym's just to keep ne'er do wells out of our personal biz. And this isn't a small problem. One study from 2017 indicated that it is typical for a single email address to be used for 130 online accounts.



 How are you supposed to remember all those passwords. I mean I can't even name 130 of the original pokemon we got Bulbasaur Charmander peek into squirrel. Got like this Snorlax pokemon you got Eevee and Pokemon I think the little caterpillar one Sissay Amish.

Oh Oddish it makes more sense. What's Magikarp Magica. Oh I hate Magikarp.


So this is where a good password manager might be able to save the day for you. The idea behind a password manager is that all of your passwords will be stored in one place. But of course I'm not talking about the super high tech method of writing them down on a piece of paper need to make a password. Just it to your password binder instead. A password manager will securely store your passwords behind one master password. This way you'll only have to remember one strong password instead of 130 while still keeping those others away from prying eyes.

 Now there are plenty of password managers out there but the first decision that you'll need to make when choosing one is whether you want a local or a cloud based solution. Password managers that you install locally on one computer are actually still a viable option these days. They keep your passwords encrypted on your own hard drive which means that you don't have to trust the cloud although some of them do offer optional cloud backup. The issue though is that while local password managers can offer a little bit of comfort to those who are worried about a prominent cloud based solution becoming a target of hackers they can also mean that your passwords will be lost if something happens to your computer or worse if someone steals it.

 So these days cloud based password managers have gotten much more popular as your password set on a secure server somewhere that can be accessed from anywhere else allowing you to quickly get into your important accounts if something happens to your phone or your laptop but may pass for managers come with features outside of just saving your passwords. For example most of them can auto generate pseudo random secure passwords for all of your accounts and then autofill them for you by means of a browser extension or a smartphone app. This is especially useful because it encourages you to avoid the widespread and terrible practice of reusing the same password over and over on different sites.

 This is really important because duplicate passwords mean that an attacker who steals let's say your Instagram password could then also suddenly have access to your email and once they got your email. Think about how many services like even your bank account that can be reset by sending a password recovery email. So make sure that you take advantage of this feature regardless of what password manager that you go with. Other useful features include sharing account access with folks of your choosing either permanently by just showing them the log in directly or temporarily by auto filling in for them automatically changing passwords for sites that have been breached and two factor authentication which you can learn more about.

 Right up here. So sounds pretty good then right. Well it is. But before you rush out to configure a password manager keep a couple of caveats in mind. The biggest one is that you must use and remember a strong master password. This is not only to ensure that no one else can guess it but also because the strength of the encryption used to protect all your other passwords is often tied to how strong your master password is. So if you're not sure how to pick a secure master password we actually have a video to help you with that up here.

 Also I know it's a hassle to remember a strong password but at least this way you only need to commit one of them to memory the next one is that two factor authentication I mentioned before you should use it on your password manager for sure but you should also keep using a separate app for that on the individual accounts that support it. This is just in case somebody does get into your password manager which could otherwise be a single point of failure. If it's ever compromised. So although some password managers integrate to factor functionality personally I'd rather take the few extra second punch in those six digits myself rather than have my employees find out what I really think of them.

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