The Problem with Passwords
How many passwords do you have? If you are the “average” person, that answer is actually 70-80 according to various sources online. Also, if you are like most people, you might use that same trusty 1 or 2 passwords for nearly everything these days, maybe adding a 1 or an exclamation point here or there to spice it up.
Logging into an account with a password is just a part of modern day life in 2021. Whether that is your work email, watching Netflix, or paying your mortgage or credit card bill, passwords are essential. Smartphones have made the task a bit easier with using facial recognition, but how many times have you had to reset a password on an account because you had no idea what that password was? I’m guessing you have had that happen more than once.
Storing that many passwords is also a security nightmare. Some people keep them stored in the notes section of their phone, others write them down on a paper in their wallet or purse, and others may store them all on a spreadsheet. Each of those methods provides ample opportunity for those passwords to end up in the wrong hands…….and if they do, you could potentially be in a world of hurt.
I recently hit the password wall, not from a security standpoint but from the brain-overload angle. After a day in which I couldn’t remember the right combination of passwords for 3 different accounts: my cable bill, brokerage account, and Hulu, I had had enough. I’m actually pretty good with remembering things, but in each of these situations, the core password was the same but all 3 had different symbols added to the end of that. My problem? What symbols did I add to each, I just couldn’t get them right.
Long story short, I had to reset each one, follow through and create 3 brand new passwords. Frustrated and concerned that I would just be doing the same thing again next month, I set out on an information gathering mission to find a better way. That is how I found digital password managers. Now before you yell at me, yes I know they have been around for a while now but honestly how many people do you know that use them? There’s still a lot of fear and ambiguity out there about them and it is tough for some people to take that plunge with such limited information. No clue what I’m talking about yet? This video does a good job of explaining the purpose.
Like I said, I hit that breaking point and decided to give it a try. There are a number of options out there like 1Password, LastPass, and others. You can find additional choices here. I ended up going with a paid family version of Lastpass. This isn’t an intentional plug for Lastpass, nor do we have any affiliation or relationship with them, they were just the one I picked. There are free password manager options out there you can use but I wanted maximum usability and liked that I could have 6 total licenses with my family for $48 a year. Lastpass also touts 26 million users which helped my fear of “what if this is some dude in a basement just waiting for my information.”
The end result has been nothing short of fantastic for me. After inputting the majority of my logins and passwords to Lastpass (many of which I had to reset again), paying bills online took me just a few short minutes rather than the extra steps I would normally take of typing in that information and trying to remember it, or consulting my spreadsheet for password hints. You see, Lastpass remembers your passwords and autofills them into the website/account portal that you would use them for. It works on websites and also on the apps, which is a tremendous timesaver that I didn’t even realize was a thing. It is also functional on both desktop and mobile. You just add a browser extension on the desktop/laptop and if you are on mobile just enable autofill passwords and select them.
If you had quizzed me prior to switching to a password manager, I would have guessed I had maybe 20-30 accounts total in my life. My actual number was 80 (and growing) and that truly blew my mind. Adding accounts to your password manager will be an ongoing and never-ending thing. You will get all your major accounts in there and then maybe you’ll open a Target account or you’ll set up an account for your water bill. When you do, just stay disciplined and keep adding them into your password manager.
So this saves time and seems awesome you might say, but isn’t this just putting all of your passwords behind another password. What if someone knows that code? A great question and one that I had myself. That concept is undoubtedly true, you are putting all of your passwords into Lastpass’ encrypted vault per se to be accessed with one master password, but you do have flexibility on that master password. They let you set up 2-factor authorization for that master password which is pretty sweet. If I try to login to Lastpass on a desktop or anywhere other than my phone, I have to enter my master password and I also have to respond to a prompt on my phone to grant access or decline.
Another neat feature that I believe most managers use are random password generators. After putting in all my accounts, I went through and used their random password generator to change my password on my most critical accounts, using a 20 letter/number/symbol combo. If you have a password like that and 2 factor authorization set up on your accounts behind your new digital password manager, it is much tougher to hack your stuff. Not impossible but extremely tough. That is much more secure than that sheet of paper in your wallet with the list of passwords on it.
I also enjoyed the sharing part of the family subscription I have. After inputting all my logins and passwords, I can share the most relevant ones with my significant other. Very easy to use and implement, even for those who aren’t super technical. There’s also a section for secure notes, which I have used for things like my TSA trusted flier number (which I can never remember) and also for my families social security numbers (which I can also never remember when I need it…….maybe I’m not as good at memory as I thought)
It is also helpful to visualize these password managers as serving as a kind of digital will. You are able to select an emergency contact, who can request access to your account if you do kick the bucket (if they request it while you are alive and you no longer trust them, you can deny the request, and switch out that person. If you don’t approve or deny the request, maybe because you’re dead, they get access after the amount of time you specified). If your emergency contact is a spouse or a partner, that could be a tremendous ease of burden and provide seamless access. One of the largest stressors outside of the actual death of a spouse is the hunt for account information, those that are needed to keep your daily life going (like mortgage, gas bill), but also things like life insurance and retirement accounts. Having this in place can eliminate unnecessary stress from your spouse during a trying time.
Why you should get a password manager
It’s 2021 and most people can’t remember their passwords or use the same one repeatedly
It is actually a great life hack
They are more secure than that list of passwords in your purse.
They actually do save you a ton of time
They can act like a digital will of sorts for loved ones
Why some people think twice about password managers
Your passwords are all online behind another password. This is true, but find a manager with great encryption and use 2 factor authorization via text on as many of your accounts as necessary and this is less of a concern than you might think.
It takes time. Inputting 80 accounts isn’t a one day job. It could be but I do not recommend it. Anticipate the transition as a 1-2 week process so that you don’t stress yourself out, then just add new accounts as they pop up or accounts you forgot about.
Some financial institutions are like a maze to get on there (totally worth it when they are) but you’ll enter a text code, answer security questions, get locked out, etc.
We don’t know many people who use password managers and there is a natural fear of the unknown that holds people back especially when talking about access to our most sensitive information.
If you are a person who has a spreadsheet with passwords or if you use the notes section of your phone as your cheat sheet, you should probably consider a digital password manager. With everything shifting online these days anyway, the password game is just going to get more complex and complicated and you’ll be ahead of the curve. That means you’ll also be able to stop using Password1! as the password on all of your accounts.