Password Protection: Are You Doing Enough?

Security is a really big issue these days. We put all of our information out into the internet from our phone numbers and our biggest turn-ons to our credit card numbers and addresses. We want all of our information to be safe, right? Well in order to keep your accounts from being hacked, you need to have a better password. It’s long been debated, but in my opinion, the best password is the one that even you can’t remember. That’s right, I said it. Your best bet on keeping your info secure is using a long password that has no meaning whatsoever.

Well how do you keep track of all that stuff? Simple. Use password management software. These programs allow you to store all of your passwords to all of your sites in one spot and this in turn can be secured with a master password. Most of these programs even feature random password generators where you can specify alphanumeric characters, capitalization, and special characters. This allows you to store a different password for every single site you access making it harder for a hacker to get his or her hands on all of your information. The best part is, with a master password, you only have to remember one to access them all. “”

Now I know what you’re thinking, what if my master password gets hacked? Well, if you do your due diligence and make it a password that’s difficult to crack (such as XKCD’s correct horse battery staple), you shouldn’t have any problem. Another advantage of using password management tools is that many people get hacked by keyloggers, which are malicious applications that get information from what’s been typed on your keyboard. Because password management software doesn’t use any keys, these programs will be useless.

So which password management program should you use? Personally, I like using 1Password. It has all the features I’ve listed above, and it has a browser extension so that I can automatically input my passwords in my browser with a simple click. There are other programs such as LastPass and others, but 1Password is by far my favorite. Your information is your own, and you should do everything you can to keep it safe. You don’t HAVE to use password management, but I’m pretty paranoid, and the peace of mind is something I like. Not only that, but I have so many site logins, that having a program to remember all of it works for me.