How SECURE are YOUR passwords?

People typically take extra precautions safeguarding valuable items – maybe items that have a sentimental value or perhaps tangible, monetary possessions that have been accumulated throughout the years. While safeguarding personal effects is important, it’s also essential to protect your online presence in effort to keep your login credentials, passwords, security questions, and overall identity safe.

A recent discussion with my son about utilizing safe practices while navigating the internet got me thinking about a topic that is often overlooked – How secure are your passwords…really? If you conduct a Google search using the term ‘common passwords’ or similar verbiage, you’ll find that many people set passwords that can be guessed or are easy to crack.  The theft of passwords, credentials and other data is not uncommon. Though this study was conducted in 2013, the statistics are still frightening. See: https://www.trustwave.com/Resources/SpiderLabs-Blog/Look-What-I-Found—Moar-Pony!/. To help protect yourself and your data, what precautions can you take?

I’d recommend using a password manager like Dashlane. This program has a free version and a paid version priced at $39.99 annually.  The free version is fully functional, but you are limited to only using it on one device, meaning your information won’t sync throughout multiple devices. For the paid version you can choose to have your data be local-only or synced to other devices. All data is encrypted using AES-256 encryption. For more about the security measures and precautions used, refer to this link: https://www.dashlane.com/security

The purpose of Dashlane is to protect your information and keep all your passwords in one place, but also has other functions which I briefly discuss below. If you update your password on one device and choose to sync numerous devices, your password will automatically update anywhere else that you have Dashlane installed. It utilizes a strong password generator using secure methods that allow the option to select the length of a password, as well as incorporating characters, numbers or symbols. You can also tell the program to make up a word that doesn’t exist, but a word that is pronounceable.

Upon downloading the program for the first time, Dashlane will scan saved passwords from bookmarks on your computer and ask if you’d like to import the existing data. It tells how weak current passwords are and will automatically replace those with stronger ones if desired. If you tell it to ‘replace now’, Dashlane will automatically log you into your account, replace your password, close the program, and store it for future use.

Other features include a wallet, which will store paypal or other financial transactions. If you have receipts that you need to key in manually, it will keep track of your expenses. Another function of Dashlane is remembering data frequently typed and will auto-fill the same information at a later time to avoid user errors and typos.

If you currently do not have a password manager and are interested in checking into Dashlane, the following code will allow you to try the paid version for free for six months: https://www.dashlane.com/en/cs/3bb70698

To check out PCMag’s review on Dashlane, refer to this link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2043301/review-dashlane-is-a-robust-password-manager-with-a-gorgeous-interface.html **Please note: the pricing of $29.99 referred in this article for the premium version has since increased to $39.99/year for new users.

I’ve always tried to utilize good practices in keeping my data safe, but it’s especially important now because I’m self-employed. It’s no longer just my data that needs to be protected – it’s also my client’s data. If you use a password manager or other method to safeguard your login credentials, please share!