If you ask security experts for their simple advice to ordinary people who are worried about being hacked, the answer would always be the same: don’t reuse passwords.
This is because a large number of people reuse the same password across multiple accounts, and if any of their accounts are compromised, all their data is at risk.
Of course, it’s hard to set up dozens of passwords for all the different logins.This is where the password manager comes in.The password manager is an application that stores passwords for all services — meaning you only need to remember one password.
No one likes to create new passwords, so people tend to use simple options that are easy to remember.Unfortunately, it also makes it easy for them to guess.Today’s password cracking software can quickly recycle common patterns and even be customized based on users’ known information.Passwords that were considered safe five years ago are now easy targets.
Passwords are not considered safe unless they are at least 12 characters long and contain random combinations of Numbers, symbols, uppercase and lowercase letters.Few people have the patience or skill to create such complex unique passwords for each account, especially when they must remember them. Password managers have algorithms that automatically generate secure passwords and store them safely, so users don’t have to remember passwords.
People always use the same password. This is understandable, but also dangerous.No one can remember dozens of unique passwords, so people tend to use the same password over and over again.This can be disastrous in a business environment.This means that a password compromise opens the door for intruders to log on to multiple services and steal information from each service.Using a password manager ensures that users can easily apply different passwords to each service, thus reducing the damage to any service.In addition, the password management solution can monitor password usage and alert management, and the employee can use it when good password hygiene is not performed
Experts recommend against storing passwords in unencrypted files or on paper notes, which means that users must commit them to memory. Not surprisingly, people forget. That’s why Gartner has estimated that up to 50% of helpdesk calls are for password resets at some companies, with an average cost-per-reset of about $70, according to Forrester Research. You can imagine how quickly those costs add up.
Many online services ask their customers to regularly change their passwords. This is a sound security practice. Unfortunately, it also creates the need for users to note those new passwords somewhere. Some will invariably fall through the cracks. Password managers help employees manage password changes and updates.
Phishing attacks are one of the most effective ways cyber criminals steal login credentials. Phishing emails that appear to come from legitimate services, but that actually direct recipients to bogus login screens that are set up solely to capturing their passwords. Most people are prone to phishing attacks, but password managers aren’t. If the domain name doesn’t match the record within the password manager, it won’t serve up a password.
To sum up, it’s essential to use password manager.