#EightCyberSecurityTips (tip 2 of 8)

#EightCyberSecurityTips - Number two (in no particular order)

 

 

Use a Password Manager (but not the one in your web browser)

 

There are numerous advantages to using a password manager, rather than trying to manually manage your online passwords

 

🔐 No more trying to remember what the password is for a particular online account. Your password manager remembers it for you

 

🔐 You don’t have to struggle with trying to think up new passwords. Your password manager will generate LSD passwords for you (Long Strong and Different)

 

🔐 You never need to type in a password again, as your password manager will fill in the account usernames and passwords for you. Click, click and you are logged in

 

🔐 Protection from Phishing attacks. If the website is a Phishing site, then your password manager realises this, and doesn’t offer to autofill the password

 

🔐 Your password manager will warn you of breached passwords, weak passwords, and reused passwords. So it’s really easy fix the “security holes” in your passwords

 

🔐 You can also use a password manager for 2FA codes instead of a specific 2FA app. This is more convenient, but can in some cases be slightly less secure. But it’s often worth the trade off

 

 

Why do I keep on banging on about not using the password managers built into Chrome, Edge, Firefox, etc ???

 

The reason is, the browser based password managers are not secure. Any half decent cyber criminal will know exactly how to steal all your browser stored passwords in a matter of seconds.

 

They can download browser hacking tools from the internet (I tried one out and “stole” all my own passwords from three different browsers in less than twenty seconds). Or they can write a script to extract the URLs, usernames and passwords from each of your browsers, and send them back to their own remote server.

 

They can put the script on a Rubber Ducky if they have physical access to your computer, or if not they can use social engineering to trick you into downloading and running the script.

 

If you let your web browser store your passwords, you might as well be writing them on the front wall of your house in six foot high letters. Please please please don’t let web browsers store your passwords.

 

So which password manager should you use. My personal favourites are Bitwarden and 1Password. For personal use you can buy these direct from the manufacturers, or if you are a business I can supply you with the business plans (as I’m a UK reseller for both Bitwarden and 1Password).

Chris

#TheAntiVirusGuy and

#TheDataBackupGuy and

#ThePasswordGuy 

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A bit about me:

💻 Helping Entrepreneurs, the Self Employed, Sole Traders and Small Business Owners manage their online passwords and keep their computers virus free.

💻 Really good anti virus (SentinelOne £16 or ESET £8 per month) 

💻 Buzz Ambassador