It is truly upsetting to see how few people use password managers. I have witnessed people who always use the same password (and even tell me what it is), people who try to login to accounts but constantly can’t remember which credentials they used, people who store all of their passwords on a text file on their desktop, people who use a password manager but store the master password on Discord, entire tech sectors in companies locked to LastPass, and so much more. One person even told me they were upset that websites wouldn’t tell you password requirements after you create your account, and so they screenshot the requirements every time so they could remember which characters to add to their reused password.
Use a password manager. Whatever solution you think you can come up with is most likely not secure. Computers store a lot of temporary files in places you might not even know how to check, so don’t just stick it in a text file. Use a properly made password manager, such as Bitwarden or KeePassXC. They’re not going to steal your passwords. Store your master password in a safe place or use a passphrase that you can remember. Even using your browser’s password storage is better than nothing. Don’t reuse passwords, use long randomly generated ones.
It’s free, it’s convenient, it takes a few minutes to set up, and its a massive boost in security. No needing to remember passwords. No needing to come up with new passwords. No manually typing passwords. I know I’m preaching to the choir, but if even one of you decides to use a password manager after this then it’s an easy win.
Please, don’t wait. If you aren’t using a password manager right now, take a few minutes. You’ll thank yourself later.
Having my passwords written down on a piece of paper is not safe ?
No. Anyone near you or with access to your place can see it. And most people know of the tricks.
Also you can’t encrypt it and most of all you can’t really generate as strong passwords as those generated by password managers, meaning I don’t even need the paper to try and crack your password
My friend, you will be surprised that encryption is something that not only the magical internet machine can do.
It’s still nowhere near as secure and convenient as using an appropriate tool. You will either have one that is easy to decipher and remember or one that is hard to decipher and remember. And you have to do it every time but at that point you might aswell just remember one password/passphrase and use it for your password manager, defeating the whole point.
Also bare in mind convenience is important in security, if a measure is very inconvenient you will eventually just bypass it on your own cause you can’t be arsed.
Maybe it’s secure but not safe. You won’t know if you have mistaken a character until it’s too late, or when you have written it ambiguously but you still remember it and don’t notice.
Sorry for the bother, but I get a little annoyed when people try to argue semantic difference in synonyms. What do you think is the difference between secure and safe?
Security and safety are not synonymous, they have a different meaning.
Security is that your password is stored in a way that it cannot be accessed by those you don’t want. Safety means that you won’t lose access to it and that it remains usable.
The distimction may be clearer with an other example.
A factory is secure if only the employees can enter, and it is safe if it does not want to fall apart and the machines in it don’t kill the employees.
Maybe it can be generalized so that security is for the access, safety is for the mistakes and the disasters.