How To Safely Store Your Passwords

Are you wondering where you should safely store your passwords? You know you shouldn’t have a list of passwords but how else are you going to remember them?

The idea for creating a password is that it’s unique and not the same as any other password, but that can mean having to remember about 200 different passwords for all your different logins and that is impossible.

What you need is a password manager.

How To Store Passwords

With the ever-increasing use of the internet, we need passwords so we can log into our accounts. In the past many people stored passwords using a notebook and pen, this is not the safest option you need to think about the most secure way and that means a password manager.

What Is A Password Manager?

A password manager is a safe way to store your passwords, so you never have to remember them again, you just need the one password to get into your password manager account.

These password mangers are online and that means you can access your information anywhere, this makes it easier to remember passwords when you are away from home and you don’t have to carry your password book with you, which is a potential risk especially if you lose it.

The Best Password Managers

There are different password managers on the market and it’s going to be a personal preference as to which one that you chose. I have picked a small number of password managers that I know about.

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RememBear

Last pass

1password

These are just a few of the companies that provide password managers and they are there to protect your passwords so they are secure, they wouldn’t be in business if they weren’t secure.

Some of these companies offer free options, they will be limiting but if you have a restricted budget anything is better than having the potential to remember all your passwords.

Choosing RememBear Password Manager

With RememBear you get the peace of mind knowing your passwords are safe and secure.

You can also use RememBear to store your card details meaning you never need to type them in again, not only is this great as you don’t need to hunt your card out whilst online shopping, you also won’t need to type in the details and expose these to other people who might be watching you.

Do you have important notes that you don’t want shared? There is a space on RememBear for these too making it an amazing product to use.

The disadvantages are that these features cost money! Wouldn’t it be nice if everything in life was free?

But if you think about it, they are a business and for them to ensure your data is safe it costs them money, so paying for something as important as password security is something you should have in your household budget.

But what is great about password managers in general, they aren’t expensive to use, the cost is minimum in comparison to what you actually get for your money.

There is a free option, but it has restrictions on what you can and can’t do.

Choosing 1Password Password Manager

1Password is a simple to use password manager that allows you to have apps and extensions so you can quickly and easily log into your accounts whereever you are. This is one that I haven’t tried but intend to do the free 30 day trial to see what it’s like.

You have a master password and this gives you access into your vault of passwords and secrets.

It can check for breaches in your passwords looking for weak passwords, compromised and even duplicate passwords.

It even checks if there are sites that you log in where you haven’t used the two factor authentication option.

Choosing Last Pass Password Manager

Last Pass is a simple to use password manager and there is a free version of this one, it holds all your information and is secure.

However, when I was using Last Pass I found it glitchy and it annoyed me, I wanted something that worked and worked well at all times I don’t like software that is temperamental but it could have been because I was on the free plan.

But you can share passwords, the other person doesn’t need to ever know the password, but it does allow other people to log into something of your choosing if you need to.

I know a lot of people who love this password manager.

Why You Need A Password Manager

The best ways to save and store your passwords are through a password manager.

Using a password manager really highlights the importance of keeping your personal information secure.

Organizing your passwords so that you can easily identify which passwords you need; it can also highlight the areas where you can remove your details if you no-longer wanted to use that company again.

Keeping a list of your passwords is dangerous, these lists are easy to steal or misplace. You might even struggle with reading your own handwriting and this can make logging into different accounts frustrating.

Securing your passwords in a format where you never have to type them again can save hours of frustration. I love being able to open up a login screen and the information automatically being filled in. It saves so much time.

Creating Passwords

Some even help you by generating unique and random passwords, these tend to be more secure as they are completely random and not restricted by our own imagination and ability to come up with random passwords.

I have tried to come up with random lettered passwords and only realising when typing them in that I actually created words, it’s hard to create perfectly random passwords when you are always thinking about something as this can influence your choices without realising it.

Using a password manger is secure, they are not going to share your information or your passwords with another person or company. You are responsible for not sharing your password for the company allowing other people access to your files.

Password Safety

You do need to take precautions that you aren’t typing in your passwords into a computer and then not logging out, especially if the computer is a shared one.

You run the risk of allowing other people to have access to your information and this is your error and not the password managers fault.

You must take precautions wherever you are to ensure that you are not exposing your personal details to strangers who are going to use that information to defraud you.

You might think that it will never happen to you, but it can and does happen everywhere!

The Wrong Way To Store Your Passwords

It is becoming increasingly important to protect the information that you have including your passwords. For many years people have used pen and paper or even a computer to store these, but now that’s not the safest option.

Common ways that people store their passwords are listed below, which one’s have you used?

• In a notebook or pad: Who hasn’t had a password sheet at some point? I know I have, and it scares me to think how unsafe it was to have these passwords unprotected. What if someone broke into my home and stole this information? They could have had access to everything. That’s a really scary thought! But how do you store passwords in a notebook? You have to write them down and this can cause issues with poor handwriting skills when it comes to copying it into your computer.
• On your phone: Have you ever stored a password on your phone? Maybe your bank card number perhaps? This is such an unsafe place to store your passwords and you really need to rethink how you store this information going forward.
• Storing on your computer: Have you ever created a spreadsheet with all your passwords? There are times that this is dangerous too. If your computer gets a virus it has the potential to send the important files to someone who has the intention of stealing this information for their own gain. If your computer dies, this does happen and you can’t access the information stored then you are not going to know any of your passwords, they die with the computer.
• You can store passwords in your computer’s browser: Have you ever entered a password and have a notification pop up asking if you want to store this password? You need to be so careful with these because if you are not the sole user of the computer you are potentially giving access to anyone who uses it in the future.
• Emails: Have you ever been sent an email with your password attached? What do you do with your emails? These emails have the potential to give someone access to our whole lives!

Tips On Computer Security

Understanding the best ways to secure your passwords and the devices that you use will help you to make an important decision on how you might think about your password security in the future.

• Never use the same password over and over again. Always have different ones, this makes it more difficult if someone does gain access to one password, they won’t then be able to gain access to every account you have.
• Reset your passwords frequently, you need to think about this now. How long have you had the same password on your social media accounts, or your online banking accounts? You need to be changing these frequently, I know it’s a pain but it’s an important task you must do.
• Have anti-malware software installed on your computer. It’s there to protect you from anyone trying to get access to your computer.
• Make sure your operating systems are kept up to date. There is a reason for the updates, and they might seem like a pain, but they are there to ensure that your computer is up to date, any time you don’t update your operating system you are opening up your computer to potential attacks.
• Make sure you also have a firewall installed, again this is protection for you and is important.
• Turn off your computer when you aren’t using it, not only will this save you money on power, but it also protects your computer too.
• If you are looking for more information on computer security then read this article called How To Keep Your Technology Safe.

Why Use Password Security

What a password manager does is simple it holds your passwords online in a secure way, depending on the software you choose depends on the specifics that your particular software and the price you are paying does.

Obviously, the more you pay the better the service you will get, I’m not talking about security of your passwords but more in the different functions that you can use in the actual software.

Some software allows you to generate random passwords and these are better than you or I could come up with on our own. It’s surprisingly hard to come up with random passwords!

Let’s Recap…

You need to consider how you are storing your passwords and what is the safest option for you.

Using a password manager like Remembear is going to ensure that your passwords are safe, and you don’t have to write anything down, which is a security risk as these are easily lost or stolen.