Best Password Managers (Archive)

[Paul Wagenseil]

To fully protect yourself online, you need a password manager. We've used and tested seven top brands to determine the best one.

Best Password Managers : Read more

 

[Math Geek]

i use last pass and love it. has it's quirks but overall it works very well and keeps all my pc's and mobile stuff synced with passwords. can change it on one system and it gets changed on them all

 

[misry]

I use lastpass via Chrome linked to an email that's used for nothing else. Make the master password long but easy to remember and you are golden.

 

[cfoam5]

Nice comparison but you left one critical data point out - How many of these companies have been hacked? 6-15-15 "On Monday password manager service LastPass admitted it had been the target of a hack that accessed its users’ email addresses, encrypted master passwords, and the reminder words and phrases that the service asks users to create for those master passwords." Seems we need to revolt against providing so much personal information just to create an account. Does Yahoo really need to know my mothers maiden name just to serve up email? Start using a different name or different birth date of someone else. We need better privacy laws in the USA! To hell with storing anything in the cloud where it can be hacked.

 

[Paul Wagenseil]

LastPass has indeed been hacked into a couple of times, but I haven't heard of any account takeovers as a result. With regard to the incident you mention, the severity depends on how strongly those passwords were hashed.

You could argue that LastPass gets hacked because it's got the highest profile. (That's Microsoft's argument, anyway.) Or you could choose to avoid LastPass because it's had to settle two different complaints with the FTC over false advertising, or because it got bought by LogMeIn. But none of those facts affect its usability and value as a service.

As for the password-reset questions such as "What was your mother's maiden name," getting around that is easy. You can, and should, lie, especially when the answer is something that can be easily discovered. So tell them your mother's maiden name was Minnie Mouse or Olive Oyl, and just remember that.

 

[Paul Wagenseil]

We'll have another round of password-manager reviews up soon -- stay tuned.