Managing passwords for your Internet connected life

Derek Schauland, MVP — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:57:52 +0000

Everyone uses passwords. In todays connected society it is all but a fact of life that a password or pin number will be used almost everyday. Sure you might go fishing way up north somewhere and your fish finder and cooler do not need a password, but most every other day… somewhere a password is waiting for you.

In recent months I have tried a few methods of managing passwords, from a paper notebook to a thumb-drive running a password application and for a while these were great ways to keep things moving and prevent me from forgetting the needed information to get into a website or some other area. Lately, an online application that works in browser as an extension and on my mobile phone has been just what the gatekeeper ordered.

LastPass to the rescue

The concept of LastPass is that you have a single password to remember and it will provide you with all of the rest of your passwords as you need them. I realize that other password keepers do this too… allow you to make a list of the items you need to keep, ATM pin numbers, logon information, etc; but LastPass does it in a way that also helps you use the information.

When I log into LastPass I can use the browser extension in Chrome to record passwords as I enter them in their respective websites. When entered, I can click the save site button and the information and URL are kept in a vault.

This vault is synced with other platforms, different browsers, my phone through an application, and other methods as well. this way when I am using a different method to access things online, I can get the logon information from LastPass.

Note: Obviously displaying my personal details about LastPass is a bad idea by nature so screen shots are limited.

Cost?

To use the basic, in browser features LastPass is free for all who sign up. Adding mobile features for devices like the iPhone or Android costs about $12/yr. Because I recently got an Android phone (more on that in another post) I decided to get the pro/premium feature set as well and boy is it nice.

When the folks at LastPass get into Windows (or other platforms) applications I will be completely convinced it was the right move. I mean what better way to start blogging more frequently than being able to remember (and not just reset) the password for your blog account… Just sayin’…

Give LastPass a try at http://www.lastpass.com and see if it helps you out as much as it has me.

Technically Speaking » Password Management

Managing passwords for your Internet connected life