Facebook, LinkedIN, Twitter, Instagram, Email, Online Banking, Online Investment Services, Youtube, BrightTalk, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, DropBox, World of Warcraft.
All these sites and services have at least one thing in common: they require usernames and passwords to get access to personal information. And for obvious reasons, this list is by no means comprehensive. Right now, your likely thinking of another 5 or 6 sites I can add to the above list that apply to you. Pinterest, Walmart, etc.
According to PasswordResearch.com, the average minimum number of private passwords per person is 17. I don’t about you, but that is quite a few passwords to have to remember. And yes, it’s easy to just use the same password over and over again. Just ask the users of LinkedIN who became paranoid when news that 6 million passwords were hijacked in 2012. I’m sure their frantic race to change the same password on at least 16 other sites and services was well worth the time to maintain simplicity.
So, what’s a person to do to stop the sanity? Glad you asked. There are various programs out there that offer password management functions, plus additional nice features (password generation, store credit card details, sync with cloud service providers, etc). The number of programs out there is staggering, but thankfully the kind people at informationweek.com can help us out. They’ve put together this short article on what they consider the top 10 password management tools.
And to add a little extra to the topic, here is a post from Lifehacker that dives a little deeper into the way Password Managers work, including some thoughts on what kind of manger is best: http://lifehacker.com/5944969/which-password-manager-is-the-most-secure.
Finally, please give us a call or contact us if you have any questions or would like some help gaining control of your passwords.
