It can be tough keeping track of pA$sW0rdS
For all of its wonders there is one downside to the internet which ensnares everyone who ventures online. It’s the problem of passwords. Over time you’ve probably registered for access at numerous sites ranging from Facebook to your bank and in each case you created a password. Common internet advice is to never use the same password twice since any charlatan obtaining that password could access all of your accounts. The great challenge is in figuring out how to remember or record all of those passwords.
The easiest method is also the least secure, which is recording everything in a notebook that you hide away and hope no one will find. Besides the inconvenience of constantly retrieving the notebook, there is the terrible eventuality that it could be misplaced, stolen, or destroyed.
A similar but much more secure method is to record your logins and passwords in an MS Word or LibreOffice document and then password protect it. As far as I know no one has been able to hack a password-protected document created in either of these programs. The advantage of this approach is that the document’s password will be the only one you have to remember in order to access the list of various logins and passwords and no one else will be able to view them without the password.
Setting a password is different in each version of Word but there is a handy guide for doing so in any version at the WikiHow site (http://www.wikihow.com/ Password-Protect-a-MicrosoftWord-Document). There is tutorial for doing this in Libre Office at the Liberian Geek site (http:// tinyurl.com/jaq48f9).
However, the obvious problem is how you’ll access the document if you are away from your computer or it completely crashes. A solution is to save the document in the cloud at Dropbox, Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive where your important document will be safe from harm or being read by anyone else and accessible on any computer connected to the internet.
Besides the manual route of recording your passwords you can opt for a software solution. You use a browser such as Google Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft’s Edge to access websites and each of these browsers can be set to remember logins and passwords and automatically fill them in when you visit a website. If you create an account for your browser and sign in, your passwords will be synchronized, or synced, with your other computer or mobile device. The procedure for doing this is different for each browser but luckily there are instructions at the websites for Chrome (http://tinyurl.com/ h6thpsh), Firefox (http://tinyurl. com/nqaskwq) and Edge (http:// tinyurl.com/jxls9xe).
However, before you rush off to do this there are security concerns. If you do not use a password to login to Windows when it boots then anyone who uses the Chrome or Edge browser will be able to automatically login in to your sensitive websites. Firefox has an option to assign a master password which must be entered before it will automatically login to secure websites.
A more sophisticated and secure method of password organization and recall is to use a dedicated password program. You can see what’s available along with reviews at PC Magazine’s list of the best password managers for 2016 (http://tinyurl.com/ c86fg9v). All of the programs are available for purchase online although one of them does have a free version which has many features and is highly rated. Lastpass (https://www.lastpass.com) installs as a browser add-on and securely stores all of your passwords in a vault at its website. It will store your passwords and can be set to automatically insert your credentials at any website requiring a sign-in. Lastpass is available for computers, tablets, and smartphones and the free version will sync your passwords among all your devices.
You’ll need a master password to view your passwords at the Lastpass site and the company says that not even its employees can gain access to your vault. Needless to say, do not forget your Lastpass password or you’ll be locked out of your own vault.