Step Up Your Password Security
WE ALL KNOW WE NEED to use stronger passwords—“password123” is not a good choice and never has been—but doing so can seem like a daunting task. How do you know what constitutes strong passwords? Where should you store them all? And won’t it be a hassle to go through all your accounts and give them strong security?
Fear not, because you can take the pain out of the situation by using LastPass. It’s a password manager that handles everything for you, from suggesting strong passwords to filling them out for you and storing your other important info, including addresses and credit card details. It can even automatically scan your accounts, find weak passwords, and, where possible, change them for you. Best of all, it’s 100 percent free to use for individual users.
All you need to remember is your master password, which grants access to your LastPass Vault. Make this strong—it needs to be at least 12 characters long, including at least one number, one uppercase letter, and one lowercase letter. Once done, you’ll never have to remember another password again. –ALEX BLAKE 1
SET UP LASTPASS On Windows, LastPass works as a web browser extension. Head to http://lastpass.com, click “Get LastPass Free,” and create an account, then click “Install LastPass” to add it to your browser of choice. Once it’s set up, click the LastPass icon, then log in to access your Vault.
Now that LastPass is set up, every time you log in to a website, LastPass offers to remember the password for you. When the “Add to LastPass?” box appears, just click “Add,” and the password is stored in your Vault.
When you visit a website that has a stored password, you’ll see a small LastPass icon in the username and password entry fields. Click this and a small box appears, showing the accounts that LastPass has stored for this website [ Image A]. Simply hover over the account you want to use, click “Fill,” and LastPass then enters the username and password for you.
That makes logging in a real cinch. Instead of having to remember all your passwords, and which one is for which website, LastPass does it for you. The only thing you need to remember is your master password. 2
MANAGE SAVED PASSWORDS You can quickly view all of your saved accounts and passwords by clicking the LastPass icon in your browser, then clicking “Open My Vault.” This takes you to your LastPass Vault homepage. The first thing you’ll notice here is a list of all your saved accounts, grouped into folders by type. Hover over a saved account and a few options appear: “Launch,” “Edit,” “Share,” and “Delete.”
Click “Launch” to be taken to the login page for that particular website. If you want to send the login details to someone else, simply click the “Share” button; you can choose whether to allow the recipient to view the password as well.
Click the “Edit” button to view all the stored details for each account [ Image B]. Here, you can amend the account name, change your login username and password, and add any notes you want to. You can also change the website address for the account, as well as the folder it’s stored in. Under “Advanced Settings,” there are options to require you to enter your master password before LastPass autofills the password for this account, to allow you to automatically log in, and to disable autofill for this website. 3
CHECK PASSWORDS FOR WEAKNESSES One of the best features of LastPass is its Security Challenge. This analyzes all your saved passwords and indicates which ones are weak or
duplicated. It can even automatically change your passwords on certain websites. To get started, click “Security Challenge” in the left-hand sidebar, then click “Show My Score.” You have to enter your master password, then LastPass gets to work examining your passwords, which takes a few seconds. When it’s finished, you get a breakdown of your overall security score, how it compares to other LastPass users, and how strong your master password is.
Underneath that, you’ll see tips on how to improve your score. The Security Challenge highlights passwords that have been included in data breaches, ones that are weak or that you have reused, and ones that haven’t been changed in a long time. Click the “+” button to expand each section and see which passwords you should change. If you have multiple accounts in one section, you can check the box next to each one, then click “Update Now” to have LastPass automatically change them.
Scroll down to the “Detailed Stats” section [ Image C]. This ranks all of your passwords from worst to best, giving each a percentage score. If you have an account with certain large websites, such as Amazon and Facebook, you can click “AutoChange” and LastPass automatically opens the site and changes your password to a much stronger alternative. Otherwise, click “Launch Site” to go to the website in question, where you can log in and change your password yourself.
At the bottom of the Security Challenge page is a button to check whether any of your email addresses have been included in data breaches. If they have, it’s a good idea to change the password for any account that uses the same email address. 4
ADD ADDRESSES AND MORE You don’t only have to use LastPass for your usernames and passwords—it can also store addresses, credit card details, and bank account information, then automatically fill out these details when required.
Unlike passwords, LastPass doesn’t ask to save your address details once you’ve filled them out on a website, so you have to save them manually. In your LastPass Vault, click “Addresses” in the left-hand sidebar, then click the large “+” icon. Enter as many address details as you want [ Image D], then give the address a name. You can add it to a folder if you like, and add attachments (such as a map screenshot if you want to share it with someone). You can set some advanced options, such as the autofill language and whether you should be prompted for your master password, and you can also click the star icon to add the address to your favorites. When you’re done, click “Save.”
The process is the same for payment cards and bank accounts. Click the relevant option in the lefthand sidebar, then enter as many details as you need. Click “Save” to store the information in your Vault. Now, whenever you go to pay for something online or set a delivery address, LastPass offers to fill out the information for you, helping to save you time.
LastPass also allows you to save secure notes. This can be any information that you want to keep safe that doesn’t fit into the other categories—details about a surprise gift for someone, for example, or your passport number. Like everything you save in LastPass, this info is encrypted, keeping it hidden from prying eyes.