Login Helper

Passwords, and login data in general, have a severe impact on a user’s security on the Internet. This is so because most users tend to pick easy to remember usernames and passwords when creating accounts on sites such as Gmail, Facebook, MySpace or Flickr. Those easy passwords can however be easily guessed by hackers.

It is therefor generally insecure to select basic passwords that are either dictionary words (think of car, password or login), words related to the site (think of picking gmail as the password on Gmail) or related to the user (think of birthdays, dog’s name).

A brute force attack is just one of the many attack forms that hackers use to get the login data. You might also have heard of phishing which usually comes in the form of fake emails that look like they have been send by the service but direct the user clicking on the links in the email to a lookalike site that records the username and password (sometimes other data as well, think of online banking transactions).

A password manager like Last Pass can protect the user and the data from many attack forms that try to steal login data.

Last Pass is a very sophisticated and secure password manager that is offered for several popular web browsers. This is a difference to other password managers who are usually offered as software programs that need to be installed.

Last Pass is currently offered for Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. The developers do provide access to a bookmarklet for users who work with different web browsers.

The password manager can be seen as a safe that contains all the login information – and other data – that the user stores in it. The safe itself is secured with one master password that the user has to remember. This is however the only password that needs to be remembered. It should be secure as it leads to all other login information. The master password should consist of numbers, letters, upper and lower case chars and if possible special chars. A good way to remember is to write it down and store it in a safe place.

Here is an overview of what Last Pass can do for you:

• Remember login information: Last Pass will automatically store login information in its secure database. New accounts will automatically be added to the vault.
• Automatic Login: Last Pass can perform automatic site logins with the click of a button (no entering of login data anymore)
• Password generator: Secure passwords can be generated and stored so that the account is secure but the user does not have to remember the password
• Online access: The password vault can be accessed online on the Last Pass website. This can be helpful in situations where the Last Pass extension is not installed on a computer.
• The information are linked to the master password. This means that Last Pass provides the same information on every computer system where that master password is supplied
• Store secure notes in its vault
• Automatic form filling: Can fill out forms on websites automatically

Why should someone use Last Pass? The password manager takes burden of the users shoulders. Only one password has to be remembered instead of dozens (using the same password on multiple sites is considered insecure). This password can be remembered in the web browser so that it does not have to be entered whenever the user connects to the Internet.

Phishing will not be a problem anymore as the automatic login script will refuse to login the user into a phishing website as the login information are tied to a single url (the website looks identical but the address is not).

Brute Force attacks will also be no problem as the secure password generator creates passwords that would take ages to brute force.

Last Pass can also import existing passwords from the web browsers which is great for users who want to keep their existing login information

Links

Last Pass website

Last Pass is an excellent security program that can aid Internet users in creating and remembering secure passwords. It is a recommended add-on.

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