27 is far too many for most people to remember, so human nature is to reuse passwords on multiple sites. It's an easy way to ensure you can get access to all your web services.
The problem comes when one of those passwords gets compromised.
If you have 27 sites and use 3 passwords, by compromising one password an attacker can probably gain access to almost 1/3 of your web services. It happens all the time, and we are seeing more instances where passwords are stolen, but no one realizes it for years.
So what can you do? Use a good password manager to maintain unique passwords for all web service you use, meaning if one web service is breached all your other web services are safe.
Encryptr will suggest strong passwords for each of your sites, it will store them in an encrypted format, and it will synchronize them across all your devices.
SpiderOak can't read your passwords because only you know the key to decrypt them.
Encryptr works on all major platforms, including Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android, and Linux.
Properly using a good password manager is one of the single most effective steps you can take to protect your online services. More breaches are coming to light regularly.
The most famous case reported (so far) is the recent Yahoo breach, where over half a billion passwords were stolen in 2014, but no one was notified for two years. It's happened to other recognizable names like LinkedIn, MySpace, and Dropbox just to name a few.
Think about how many people might use the same password on their banking site as they did on another web service that may have been compromised. Scary stuff.
Using a password manager to maintain unique passwords for each site reduces the threat drastically.
Encryptr is free and easy to use, so why wouldn't you want to protect yourself?
Happy surfing!
-The Home Geek
Password security is a joke. I’ve been an IT contractor for over a dozen different companies on various program and the way that employees share with utter disregard for security protocol is scary. I’m astonished more companies don’t get hacked into. They all need to start using a serious password manager like PasswordWrench yesterday.
ReplyDeletePasswords as a rule are a weak security measure. A password manager is a good starting point to allow anyone to use complex passwords that are not recycled.
DeleteThat said, if anyone is really interested in keeping their accounts secure they are far better served using 2-factor authentication wherever possible.
If someone is relying on passwords only to keep them secure then a password manager is essential, as we commonly see passwords get stolen and sold online. By using unique passwords per service you only risk the one account instead of multiple accounts.