Passwords
Passwords are a pain in the tuchus, right?
- A website requires you to have lowercase letters, uppercase letters, and numbers in your password
- A different website requires you also have symbols
- Yet another website requires you to have all of that AND use at least 8 characters
- AND ANOTHER ONE WANTS YOU TO HAVE 12
So you craft a super secure crytographic-looking password. It has zeroes instead of o's, you slapped a 1 and an exclamation point on the end, and you capitalized the first letter. Aaaaannnnddd then a website requires you to change your password because you haven't done so in a few months. Great. Just another complicated stupid password to remember.
And the problem is, you don't remember. You have your one fancy password that you use for most things, but there's that one site that you can never remember the password to. So you end up having to change it every time you log in.
And don't even get me started on apps like Snapchat and whatnot where you only log in once and don't ever have to log in again unless you get a new phone. You want me to remember the password I used to sign in once 2 years ago and haven't had to type ever again? You're dreamin', pal.
Wanna make it suck less?
Generally speaking, security and convenience are at odds with each other. To get more of one, you have to sacrifice some of the other. However, there is a tool we can use here to get a big plus to both security and convenience at the same time: a Password Manager.
Password managers are like the notes app on your phone where you copy and paste a bunch of your passwords, but they're way better.
Trying to come up with a fancy secure password that meets the requirements of whatever account you're setting up? Easy, password managers allow you to generate complex passwords with the click of a button.
Can't remember the password for that site you haven't logged into in like 6 months? No prob, you saved it in your password manager when you first set up the account.
Hate having to type in these long complex nonsense passwords? Gotcha covered, you can just copy and paste what you have saved in your password manager. Or even better, autofill it.
Okay, but why should I care?
- You
I already told you, because the way you're doing it right now sucks and this way is better.
Rude. But fine, go on...
- You
There are multiple different options you can use for a password manager, but my main recommendation is DON'T USE LASTPASS. They used to be good, but they got bought out by another company and they've had a bunch of security breaches in recent years.
My favorites are Bitwarden and 1password. Both have solid functionality and high security standards. Bitwarden has a pretty generous free plan, as well as some paid plans. 1password is overall cheap, but does not offer a free plan outside of its 14 day free trial.
Do some research on which you prefer, or just go with Bitwarden because it's free. You do you, booboo.
Okay, I set up an account with a password manager. Now what?
- You
Step 1
Set a strong, memorable password for this account. And for the love of all that is holy, do NOT use a password that you've already used on something else before. Once you have this set up and rolling, you're almost never gonna have to come up with new passwords again. So do it right just this one last time. Pretty please.
Here's some guidance on making a good password:
Just string some words together. Or write a sentence.
In actuality, the number of characters in your password matters WAY more than having numbers and symbols and whatnot. Aim for 20 characters if you can. Remember, this is gonna be one of the last passwords you have to create EVER.
Here are some examples:
(Obviously don't use these exact ones, dummy)
everyorangeismadeofbananas - 26 characters
mycousinsdogisaunicorn - 22 characters
peanutbutterisnotwhiskey - 24 characters
You get the idea. Password creation is frightening and/or annoying, but it gets easier when you use this method AND your passwords will be super secure and super easy to type.
Step 2
Set up Two-Factor Authentication on the account (Click the link if you want more info about that in general).
This account is gonna be storing a lot of your sensitive data, so you absolutely wanna make sure it's locked down properly. I especially recommend using an authenticator app for the two-factor authentication on this one. Again, see the link for more info about that.
Step 3
Add a login. You can usually easily find a + symbol or something similar to create a new login entry.
When adding a new login, you may be overwhelmed with the number of different fields for you to fill out. Don't stress, the only things I would consider essential to enter here are the following:
- Name
- Simply for your ease of finding the login in your vault in the future
- Username
- Either an actual username or an email address, depending on the site
- Password
- For now, enter your current password for that site. In the future, I recommend going through and changing your password for each site and using the password manager's built-in password generator
- Website/URL
- If you are on the website currently, the password manager may autofill this. It's used so that the password manager can offer you any login(s) you have for that site while you are on it. It can be simple short-form, such as google.com or amazon.com
Step 4
Now this is the long part of the process. But don't be intimated, I absolutely recommend you just do it over time.
This step is where you go through alllllll of the websites/services that you have accounts with and add them to your password manager, ideally changing your password to a randomized secure one in the process.
This will take a lot of time, and doesn't need to be rushed. What I recommend is whenever you log in to an account, take an extra moment to save that login to your password manager and change the password to a secure one. Just keep doing that, and naturally you'll cover your most important accounts fairly quickly.
Important Note
Changing your saved password in your password manager DOES NOT change your password on the website account itself. When changing a password for a site, I recommend adding the site and its existing current password to the password manager, then go through the website's password change process, using the password manager to generate a new secure password for the site and save it in there.
Once you've gotten used to using a password manager, a lot of things in your digital life will become easier, and more secure too! And getting a new phone and re-logging-in to all of your apps will be SIGNIFICANTLY less painful.
A note on shared vaults
Most (if not all) password managers have the option to link multiple password manager accounts together and use a shared password vault. This is usually a paid feature, FYI.
Shared vaults allow you to designate certain saved logins (or all if you prefer) to be shared with someone else. So, you and your significant other could create a shared vault for bank logins, utilities, etc. And that way both of you have access to the login in a secure fashion.
In a morbid addition, this also means that if one person passes away, the other person has one less stresser to deal with - They already have access to the online accounts necessary to pay bills and keep life going. Nothing makes grieving worse than having to call the cell phone company to pay your bill because your partner always paid it before and you don't know the password to log in and pay it :/