In the 80s or 90s there was a movie called Sneakers where someone invented the ultimate password cracking machine and the secret code to make it work was “too many secrets”. There are however people who try to crack passwords and therefore we should make them longer and harder, but if we do that how can we possibly remember them?
This is the role of a program called a password manager. Password managers mean that you only need to remember one really hard password that unlocks the rest that are stored in the password manager. We’ll comment on three different password managers here:
1. Dashlane (http://www.dashlane.com/) – editor’s choice!
Available for free, but with extra features in a paid version. Comes in the form of a program that runs on your computer and a browser add-on that enables automatic form filling. Because it is an application it can be used easily for passwords that are for things other than web pages. Also has some extra features for dealing with online purchases. If you aren’t comfortable storing all your passwords on the internet you can run it completely standalone without syncing to the internet, if you do that though you don’t get syncing to other devices but you can manually export and import your passwords in a file to transfer them between devices. Has some nice features like the ability to rate your passwords for strength and to warn you which ones need to be changed because they are weak. It also compares your passwords to passwords on leaked password lists available on the internet, if your password is on one of those lists then it tells you that your password is compromised so you can change it.
2. Last pass (https://lastpass.com/)
Available for free, but with extra features in a paid version. Comes in the form of a browser add-on. All your passwords are stored online with a local cache (for if the internet is unavailable). It is troublesome to use because whenever you need to edit any password it has to be done through a webpage. If you are uncomfortable storing your passwords on the internet then this one is not for you. Does some password checking for you like dashlane but isn’t as comprehensive.
3. Keepass (http://keepass.info/)
Free and open source. Your passwords are kept on your computer. The interface is clunky.