Password managers? Crowdsourcing the wisdom of DW/LJ.

[raincitygirl]

So, password managers? I keep reading news articles about how they’re a good thing, and a LOT safer than writing all your passwords down. I write them down in code, but I have no illusions my code is uncrackable. So I should probably get one.

Which is the best? And are all the journalists right that password managers are actually safe? Because it seems counter-intuitive to put all your passwords in one place and then hope that one place doesn’t get hacked.

Comments

[marinarusalka]

I have two Bitwarden accounts, one for work and one personal, and I've been very happy with them. UCSD specifically recommends that their employees use a password manager for extra security. I actually got a paid account for my personal one, because it gives you some extra features like letting you designate an emergency contact.

I used to have LastPass, bu they got bought out by some other company and hiked up their prices, so I dropped hem. And Bitwarden gave me an option to import everything I had saved in LastPass, so that worked out well.

[raincitygirl]

Thank you. This is very helpful.

[madripoor_rose]

I do both? But can't rec one since the password manager is actually one from my local internet provider/tech support that they put on last time my computer went kablooey.

It does make things faster, just having passwords autofill. But I keep a written list because I know I'm going to forget some of them if I never have to type them in by hand any more. Having a home desktop computer, I keep the list out of plain sight but the logic there is that if someone's in my house going through stuff....I got bigger problems.

[raincitygirl]

Yeah, bigger problems indeed. Thanks!

[legionseagle]

we use One Password.

[raincitygirl]

Thanks very much. I’ll look into that one.

[applenym]

I purchase a yearly subscription to the 1Password Families plan. It works seamlessly everywhere I need it: on both my home and work laptops, on my iPhone, and on my iPad. It's cross-platform and works on Mac, Windows, Android, etc (but I've only ever used it on Apple devices—I think it started out as a Mac-only app). You can either install the app on your devices, or you can log in to your account online in a web browser and just copy/paste as needed.

I like that I can create separate vaults and share them with the other people in my Family plan. For example, I created a vault to share with my son, but he only has access to that shared vault and not to my other passwords. And I created a vault specifically for my work-related passwords, so I can keep them separate from my personal ones.

It also lets you securely store credit card accounts, secure notes, software licenses, etc.

It makes my life easier in a lot of ways. I do wonder what would ever happen if 1Password got hacked, but there are a lot of steps a hacker would still need to take to actually break into each user's specific account. And using a password manager allows me to create a unique password for every single one of the many, many accounts I have, which I think is the most important thing.

[raincitygirl]

That actually sounds perfect, with the system of separate vaults. I’d love to have a vault just for work passwords. And there are certain passwords that anyone in my family should have access to, if I get hit by a bus or something. But there are other passwords that I would only want, for example, my mother to have.

And I am definitely a Mac person, have both an iPhone and a MacBook, so if these products are built to mesh well with Apple
products, that also sounds good. Some stuff was clearly designed for Windows computers and Android operating systems, with Mac users tacked on as an afterthought. If 1Password started out as a Mac product, that’s a good sign.