Password Managers Explained for Beginners
You’ve probably heard of a password manager before(If you haven’t, well, now you have!). Password managers seem kind of strange and risky, though. The idea of a password manager makes you think of a couple of questions. What are they? Isn’t putting all of your passwords in one place risky? Well, those are good questions. Good password managers are way safer than other things people use, like reusing passwords or writing them down. To learn all about password managers, read below!
What a password manager does
A password manager is a secure app that stores all your passwords in one encrypted vault. You unlock the vault with a single master password. After that, the password manager can fill in your logins for you and create strong, unique passwords for all of your accounts.
An analogy of a password manager would be like a safe for your keys. Instead of hiding keys under doormats or in flowerpots all over your house, or places you might not remember, you keep them in one locked safe. You only need to remember the combination to that one safe.
The problem it solves
Security experts say the same things about oasswords: use a long, random, unique password for every account. The problem is that nobody can remember dozens of long, random passwords. So, people don’t follow this and do other things, like reusing one password, or maybe picking easy passwords they can remember.
A password manager stops these problems from happening. Password managers remove the need to remember passwords, remembering them for you. It generates and stores strong, unique passwords for you. You can follow the expert advice without the need to do anything. That’s the whole point of password managers.
Is it safe to keep everything in one place?
This is the most common thing people worry about, and the answer is pretty simple. A good password manager encrypts your vault, so that even the company running it can’t see your passwords.The vault is protected using your master password, and only you know your master password.
This is called zero-knowledge design. The company stores your data but has, well, zero knowledge of what is inside it or what it is. If the company was ever breached, hackers would find only scrambled data they cannot read.
HatePassword works this way. Your vault is encrypted on your own device before it ever reaches our servers. We never see your master password, and we can’t ever see your passwords. Even we can’t even open your vault. Only you can. Nobody else.
What to look for in a password manager
If you are choosing one, look for a few things:
- Strong encryption that happens on your device, not just on their servers.
- A zero-knowledge design, so the company can’t read your data.
- A password generator to create strong, unique passwords for you.
- Autofill to make logging in easy across all of your devices.
- Clear honesty about what happens if you forget your master password.
That last point is really important. In a true zero-knowledge system, if you forget your master password, even the company cannot recover your vault. It means nobody but you can get in. But, it also means you need to protect your master password carefully.
Getting started
Starting to use a password manager is really easy. You install the password manager, create a strong master password, and begin adding your accounts. Many managers let you save logins as you use them, so your vault fills up naturally over time. You can also change weak or reused passwords to strong, new passwords.
The first day feels like a small change in your routine. Within a week, it becomes a habit, and you’ll wonder how you ever kept track of your passwords before. A password manager is one of the few security tools that makes your life easier and safer at the same time.