I too now only use keychain that is built in to the Apple verse. It is occasionally glitchy with Microsoft passwords however. Dashlane was good until I inadvertently changed the master and they at that time offered no work around. Tried Keeper but didn’t autosave like Dashlane which I liked bestIf you’re in the Apple ecosystem, you can use the built-in password manager. It securely shares passwords across your various Apple devices (iPhone, Mac, iPad, Apple TV).
Works great if you only use Apple devices...
I use Password Safe https://pwsafe.org/
Used it for years and happy with it. It stores passwords in an encrypted file locally on your computer or on a memory stick. One Master Password is needed to open the the password file. Free and supports 64 bit. Did not want to store passwords online.
I’m glad to hear the favorable comments re the Safari/Apple solution. That’s what I use, and it works great for me but I’m glad to hear that others also feel it’s a good solution. I never researched the different options, just used Safari since all our devices are Apple.
Even though I use strong passwords, and two factor authentication when available, I think the time has come where I might use a password manager. Too many world events where cyber attack is part of the plans. Sure as individual I am probably not a direct target, but a major data breach can make for challenging times. Certainly can't hurt to improve security online since so much of our lives are present there.
1. Do you use a password manager?
2. Which One?
3. Do you like it?
4. (bonus question) Do you pay for it, and how much?
My simple solution is to not have any accounts of value be accessible on line. I do keep a spread sheet that tracks all my accounts but only access it off line and do not store it on a computer. I reboot after closing and removing the media, then come back on line. Always do an update of security SW and scan before initiating any other programs.
Even though I use strong passwords, and two factor authentication when available, I think the time has come where I might use a password manager. Too many world events where cyber attack is part of the plans. Sure as individual I am probably not a direct target, but a major data breach can make for challenging times. Certainly can't hurt to improve security online since so much of our lives are present there.
1. Do you use a password manager?
2. Which One?
3. Do you like it?
4. (bonus question) Do you pay for it, and how much?
I have been searching and found these as popular choices: lastpass, bitwarden, 1password, dashlane, keeper.
Thanks for discussion and helping me decide what to do.
I also use a spreadsheet. The one thing you didn't mention is password protecting the spreadsheet. Mine requires a password to unlock the spreadsheet then I can access all my passwords.
My financial accounts require two factor authorization.
Using 1Password, Family version. 5 people use it. Each can have a Private locker and a Shared locker for things like TV logins.
Very happy with it. I did spend ~8 hours one Saturday transitioning and getting everything in 1Password. This included getting rid of duplicate passwords and using much more complicated passwords for anything financial or shopping related.
We have determined that an unauthorized party, using information obtained in the August 2022 incident, was able to gain access to certain elements of our customers’ information. Our customers’ passwords remain safely encrypted due to LastPass's Zero Knowledge architecture.
My interpretation of this is that the bad guys managed to get some of the customer's encrypted signon data. I may be wrong. But, that is how I read between the lines.
I doubt that anything encrypted was compromised. I'm no expert, but my oldest son is. He's a software engineer on Microsoft's security team and also spent 5 years with the NSA doing encryption work. He tells me that encrypted data can't be hacked without the encryption key, which would be on the user's device, not the vendor's servers. Regardless, it's troubling to see continued breaches.
Any widely-used password manager is going to be a high-priority target for hackers. At the same time, the need for complicated and obscure passwords, is pretty questionable. Exhaustive passwords attacks are inefficient and passé. Phishing is the name of the game these days and password managers are no defense against that. So I just have no interest in using one. My financial passwords are complicated enough to be unguessable and the sites prevent exhaustive attacks by limiting the number of login fails permitted. My passwords for sites like this one are close to trivial but I really don’t care whether I am seriously protected or not. There is nothing here that an imposter could steal. Same story on other forums, even on news sites. Nothing to steal so little need for protection.