In the ever-important realm of internet security, passwords are both a blessing and a hassle. With so many requirements, it’s no wonder most of us have a hard time remembering our encrypted secret codes.
Password must be at least 7 characters long and contain at least one of uppercase, lowercase and special character. Password may not contain in full or partial your username. You can not use a password that you have used in your past 5 password changes. Your password must be impossible for anyone anywhere ever to guess, hack, or otherwise figure out. Ever. In fact, make up a new word in a foreign language that has no meaning except in your own overloaded, confused and forgetful mind. And then remember it without writing it down or using it again for any other password-requiring login.
Yikes. With everything from your email, bank account, online photo gallery and favorite shoe store requiring a password these days, its easy to get them mixed up and confused. And while it’s tempting to use the same word in various forms for everything – Banana35, banana35, 35banana, bAnAnA1110435, and so forth – doing so jeopardizes the security of your online accounts, and can still be difficult to keep straight.
Enter LastPass. LastPass is “a password manager that makes web browsing easier and more secure.” It is a free program compatible with all major browsers and is the top pick for password management by PC Magazine. The idea behind LastPass is to put an end to the millions of hard-to-manage passwords floating around in your head. You start by entering all of your current login information into the LastPass “vault”, where account information for all of your saved websites is stored. Then, whenever you have to access one of them the program does the remembering for you. Take Gmail, for example: when you visit gmail.com, LastPass automatically recognizes the site as one you have saved and fills in your username and password for you. LastPass can also remember more than one set of login info for any given website- so my husband an I can share the same LastPass account and each have our own Gmail accounts saved in the system. This is also handy when we share the same account, such as our barnesandnoble.com account, so both of us can access it through LastPass. In this way it differs from the Internet Explorer or Firefox “Remember Password” features, because it can be used across browsers and at any computer in any location.
The program also takes security and convenience further in a few ways. When you visit a site to create an account for the first time, LastPass can auto-generate a secure password for you and store it in your vault. This not only eliminates the need to remember a clever four-uppercase-and-two-lowercase-and-seventeen-characters-that-don’t-repeat password, you don’t even have to come up with it in the first place. If you do choose to create your own password, though, LastPass will still prompt you to save it in the vault, so you can promptly forget it. The other handy tool available is automatic form filling. You enter your personal information into LastPass and then anytime you encounter a form on the web LastPass will offer to fill it in automatically. This puts an end to typing your name, email, address, phone number and more (even credit card information) over and over again daily. And again it can save multiple user information, so my husband and I can each fill forms with a single click. Or, you can have a form for Home and a form for Business.
Overall, LastPass is a great little tool that can help simplify your day-to-day life. If you can remember just one master password, LastPass will handle the rest. Are there any tricks that you use to simplify web browsing?