5 Reasons Why You Should Definitely Be Using a Password Manager

Hi, this is Gary at MacMost.com. Here's why you should be using a Password Manager. 

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I think at this point most Mac users are using a Password Manager. Perhaps the one built into macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. But if you're not using any kind of password manager now here's why you should be. 

So reason #1 is that Password Managers do more than just storing a password. They'll generate passwords for you as well. Most importantly they'll generate strong passwords. So a weak password is when you have a password like this. A name or a word or just some numbers or even a date in any format. Even if you try to make it more complex by adding some numbers or punctuation to it, it still a weak password and easily guessable by a program trying to break into one of your online accounts. There are all sorts of different techniques people use to make the passwords more difficult to guess. But they are still going to be weak and it's still just a matter of time before your account is broken into if you use a password like this. 

A strong password on the other hand is randomly generated. Any password that comes from a human brain isn't going to be random enough to withstand an attack. You need to have something generated by an algorithm using random letters, number's case, punctuation, and all of that. A Password Manager will do that easily and effortlessly. 

Reason #2 is that you can have long passwords with a Password Manager. It doesn't matter how long it is because you're not typing the password. Any password that is easy to type is going to be a weak password. You need to have this long random password and it is going to be typed for you by your Password Manager. It's going to fill it in. So it doesn't matter how long the password is. So now you can have these nice long strong passwords without ever having to worry about typing them. 

#3. Another thing Password Managers do is they allow you to use unique passwords. If you use your own passwords, generate them yourself and keep track of them in your head or even on paper or in a document, it probably means you're probably going to end up reusing passwords. After all, in addition to maybe the dozen or so important sites you use, there are probably dozens or hundreds of other minor sites you use. Eventually you get tired of creating new passwords and you start reusing some of your favorite ones. When you do this if one site is compromised then any site that you uses that same password also has to be considered compromised. That password just gets added to a list and eventually the other site that you use that password at will get broken into. So it is important to use unique passwords. A different one for every single site you service. A Password Manager makes that easy. 

#4. Password Managers will also protect you against phishing attacks. This is when you get an email, a text message, or some other alert telling you that there's a problem or some reason you need to login to a site, but you're sent to a fake site. You can't rely on your eyes to spot the difference. Sometimes you will. But it only takes just one time, maybe when you're emotionally charged because you think there's a problem, to not notice the difference. Entering your password could mean your site is now compromised. But a Password Manager won't fall for this trick. They'll only recognize exact site matches. So when you're sent to the wrong site, it's not going to match that wrong site with the correct password. So it will protect you from those phishing attacks. 

#5. Finally, Password Managers will warn you when there is a data leak. So, this could be one of two things. One is a site is compromised. They report that their passwords, perhaps have been stolen and that you need to change your password for that site. Password Managers keep track of that and will alert you that you need to change your password. You don't need to read security websites all the time to know when this stuff happens. It will also recognize when your passwords have been found in some list online. This means there has been a data leak somewhere but maybe it hasn't been reported and it will alert you when you need to change that password. 

Now I know despite these five very good reasons why you should be using a Password Manager there are people that still have concerns about them. So let me dispel some of those fears. 

First of all a lot of people are worried that all their passwords are in one place. It seems like things would be less secure when your passwords are all together in one place. But it's a very secure place. It's an encrypted vault. It's very difficult, really impossible, to break into. Most Password Managers store this vault online. That's actually a good thing! Because it means you can access your passwords on your Mac, your iPhone, your iPad, maybe a second Mac and so on. You want to make it easy for you to access your passwords while making it impossible for anybody else to do it.  If you make it hard for you to access your passwords when you need them you're going to end up not using the Password Manager or using a password that is easy to type. Remember the vault with your password is encrypted and virtually impossible for anybody to break in to. Even if the service that contains those password vaults is somehow compromised all they get is the vault. Without the encryption key they can't actually get to your passwords. 

People also feat that what if they need one of those passwords when they are away from their computer. Well, if you have your password stored in a vault and it's online you can access them, say, on your iPhone. So if you need your password somewhere else you should be able to pullout your iPhone and then get access to it through the app or the settings there. 

Now having all your passwords in one place may invoke the fear of what if you loose that database of passwords. Well, if you're worried about that you can certainly backup your passwords. All good Password Managers have a way to Export or backup the passwords. It's even totally okay to actually print out a backup list and store it somewhere where nobody else has access to them if you're worried about this. Also people worry about having all their passwords stored in one place with a password and what if they forget that password. Well, like I said before, you can back them up. You can, of course, also backup that password. For instance if you are using Apple's Password Manager then your iCloud password and/or your computer password is your key to getting into that and you could basically write those down, put them in a secure place, as a backup to make sure you never forget those. 

So using a Password Manager definitely has some pros and cons. But the risk of using a Password Manager are very small and the pros are huge. You should definitely be using a Password Manager. So if you haven't been using one up until now which one should you use? 

Well, if you're an Apple user just use Apple's Password Manager. It is built-in to macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. You have it already plus it is free. It's not going to cost you anything extra and it automatically syncs across devices. So you signup for a website on your iPhone and you go to log into that website on your Mac. You have the password there because iCloud is available on both those devices. However, if you're using more than just Apple devices you may want to go with a third-party password manager to be cross-platform. There are four big names in this field right now. They are all really good. They range from free to costing a little bit and really your online security is totally worth spending a little bit of money every year to protect them with strong unique passwords stored in a Password Manager. 

So if you haven't been using a Password Manager up until now I hope this convinces you to start. Thanks for watching.