I run three different businesses. Four, if you include my household, of which I am the CEO, CFO, procurement manager, head of human resources, janitorial staff manager, and head maintenance engineer. It means I wear a lot of hats. It also means I have nearly 700 logins & passwords to remember. 

Let that sink in. 700 passwords. That said, the majority of them are long, with capitals, numerals, symbols and all those things we know make them secure. I must have incredible brain capacity, right?  No, what I have is a password manager. Maybe you’ve got your passwords noted in a little book, a spreadsheet, or you simply use the same password everywhere. (DON’T. DO. THAT.)   We all know this is flawed and unsafe, but our minds can’t handle all that info. And let’s not forget those rabbit holes you go down when you have to reset one. Click the link, check for a text, create a new password… and then try to figure out what you were trying to log into in the first place. A major blow to your productivity. A password manager solves this for you and more. 

So...what’s a Password Manager?

A password manager is an encrypted vault where all your passwords are stored safely and can be retrieved easily. Logging into Instagram?  Your kid’s school portal? Your company SAP account or that weird subscription service you did a free trial of three years ago and now want to cancel?  Maybe you do have a nice long, secure and kooky one for Google, Facebook, or Paypal...how do you remember it?  A password manager will eliminate the irritation of finding, remembering, or resetting passwords. Most do even more for you than that, and once you have one, you’ll wonder how you ever survived.

There are many on the market. You can see full reviews of them and their various features here.  They are all comparable, but I’m a devotee of Dashlane, and the features I describe below all apply its features, some of which are premium features. 

8 Reasons to Use a Password Manager

1. It will create complicated passwords for you.

2. It will automatically save any new passwords you make on a website.

3. Two Words:  Auto-Fill.  This will change your life. Any website you go to, it will auto-fill the login & password, and usually get you logged in. If you set it up, it will automatically fill in your address, credit card info, date of birth...all those things we are always having to find and put in.  

4. It will sync your passwords across all your devices. So when your teenager texts you from the sleepover asking for the Netflix password, and you’re out on date night, you can call it up on your phone and send it to her in seconds. It works on all browsers and mobile devices. 

5. If you still want that safe piece of paper, you can export the whole crazy list into a spreadsheet. I do this about once a year or so, and put it in the safe.

6. It protects you with friendly alerts about weak, re-used or compromised passwords. 

7. Alerts you to data breaches at websites you use, and encourages you to change the password. 

8. When you set up the app, it imports existing passwords that you may have saved into your browser etc.  And as you login to different sites, it will ask you if you’d like it to save it.  Boom. You can start forgetting passwords. 

Dashlane has some additional premium features that make it an even more valuable tool. 

• Dark web monitoring of your email addresses for breaches. 

• Share passwords securely with others

• VPN for Wifi Protection for when you are at the coffee shop on unsecured networks)

• Credit monitoring

• Identity restoration support

• Identity Theft Insurance

I know what you’re saying. Hello, identity theft!  Why would I put all my passwords in one place? A fair question. Nothing is 100% secure. As these companies' entire business is about security, they have taken all the right steps to ensure your information is safe. There are numerous features that make password managers extremely secure. First of all, you create a master password to access the vault, and it is recorded nowhere. You are the only one who knows it, it cannot be retrieved in any way.  On your mobile devices, the app is secured with the password or biometrics (fingerprint/face ID)

According to Cybernews.com, 

“Both free and premium password managers use military-grade encryption and zero-knowledge architecture. This means that there’s no way to decipher your database even if someone breaks into it. The provider also doesn’t have a key to unlock your data. That’s why it all comes down to using a proper master password, 2FA, and keeping your devices malware-free.”

The above referenced article goes into great detail -- I highly recommend it if you are super concerned. They also have detailed reviews of various managers here.  But if it’s good enough encryption for the military, it’s good enough for me.

So the next time you are waiting for that password reset email, download a password manager app and save yourself a lot of time. Or just keep using Password1234 and hope for the best.