You know the feeling when you start using a new product or service and wonder, “How could I have done without this?” I’m in Europe right now and I think the same is going to happen to me with “steam ovens” but this being a tech site and all, I’m going to talk about the next best thing: LastPass.
I use a few different computers, several different browsers, and I have data stored all over the place. I’m on top of security, but I was more a crazy-password-to-my-USB-thumb-drive kind of guy. Gets a little old, and not as portable as it could be. Enter LastPass.
You get a master password and then LastPass will start to collect all of your login and password information for all of the sites you visit. If you don’t want it to remember info for certain sites, you can choose to not save it for those sites.
There are a bunch of features that I didn’t even know about, so poke around and see how it can help your online efficiency. If you regularly have access to hundreds of sites, this tool is indispensable.
I’ve been thinking about using a password manager for quite awhile, and this looks like an excellent one. Are there any reasons NOT to use it/one?
I don’t know, I suppose security. But how secure is the Word doc on a hard drive? Or the sticky notes on your monitor? I guess it’s always only as secure as the weakest link. Yes, LastPass did get hacked a few weeks ago, so nothing is 100% secure. Which is why strong passwords are also important.
Does Lastpass keep your credentials in the cloud, on their servers? Or is the pwd file stored on your local system?
As far as I can tell (I just read their “How We Do It” a few times … ) it seems the data is local and then encrypted to sync with their servers. So, hmm, does that mean it’s in both places?
B, my concern with services which store your credentials in the cloud is summed up by this: “But even with amazing security, I could never feel completely secure leaving all my passwords in someone else’s hands…”
A friend of mine was just today strongly recommending the 1password/dropbox solution … check out this article I found on lastpass v. 1password, fwiw.
1password looks great, Ali, thanks for posting! I just looked at the Dropbox Sync tutorial and looks straightforward. But then I’m still in the cloud and now I’m hosting my (encrypted) passwords at Dropbox, right?
I like this feature, it looks to me like it’s giving each of the passwords a strength rating. Cool.
Without having looked yet, a central password function in place, it would make routine changing of all your pw a simple act.
I’ve been using lastpass for quite awhile ~ what a lifesaver! Saved me tons of time on “resetting” passwords all over the place :)
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