Best Password Managers

What is a Password Manager ?

A Password Manager is a software application that can be used to manage a user’s passwords that the user typically has for various online accounts. It can generate complex passwords for a user as well as store and retrieve them from an encrypted vault whenever the user tries to authenticate in an online account. Password Managers typically store a user’s passwords in an encrypted vault and provide secure access to them with the help of a master password.

Some Password Managers store the encrypted vault of user’s passwords in the user’s local system and some store it remotely in their servers. Usually the user has to generate and remember a master password and using that he can unlock and access all other passwords.

Why to use a Password Manager ?

Using a strong password for an online account is an absolute necessity. Hackers often bruteforce a user’s weak password using various methods. Moreover, hackers often get access to users’ passwords from various data breaches and use them to try to access other online accounts of users. So, reusing passwords is also very risky.

Hence, we must use different and strong passwords for each of our online accounts. As a result, at times it becomes very difficult to remember all the strong passwords all the time. Password Managers can help a user in that. A user has to remember only a master password and using that he can store and access all his passwords.

Sometimes, our browsers provide us with the option of remembering passwords while filling up an online login form. Please note that our browsers do not use encryption while storing those passwords. Hence, if malaware infects a computer, the passwords may be accessible to the attackers. So, it is not at all advisable to store sensitive passwords in browser.

Good to Read

Here are some articles that may be interesting to read :

• How to create a strong password and remember it efficiently ?
• What is 2 Factor Authentication and why should we always enable it ?
• Do’s and Don’ts of Passwords
• How to secure online banking transactions ?
• How to prevent keyloggers ?

Features of a good Password Manager

Here are some features we should look for in a good Password Manager :

• Easy to use.
• Ability to manager passwords for applications along with websites.
• Automating the password change process with ease.
• Invoking Password Managers automatically while visiting certain websites like financial websites.
• Should support 2 Factor Authentication. It should have the ability to ask for another access code when the user tries to access a password at the time of filling up login form.
• Syncing passwords across all the devices of a user, so that the user can effectively use the Password Manager from multiple devices.
• Ability to share passwords secretly and invoking the sharing later. Sometimes we do need this feature.
• Provision of digital legacy, i.e. the ability to transfer your login credentials to trusted individual after death or incapacity of the user.