Password Managers: Should You Use Them?

I’ve been in the IT field for such a long time, yet it was only recently that I heard of password managers. (am I getting old?!) If you’re also like me, a newbie when it comes to password managers, let me help you out: password manager (otherwise known as password vault) is basically a software app that stores all your usernames and passwords for you. It’s a relatively new software with minimal data breaches (so far) as we know, and it really fits well with today’s pace of life. We are constantly in a hurry and, really, it’s a perfect byproduct of our lives; how can you remember all of your passwords and usernames in a hurry?

Now that all of us, me included, know what password manager stands for, I wanted to discuss it with you as to whether or not password manager is a safe software to use.

It’s encrypted

I mean, of course it’s encrypted. But it’s encrypted to that degree that cyber-attacks are almost non-existent. And what I’ve recently found out as well, embassies and governments often use password managers to keep all the intimate data secured!

It creates a master password for you

The software creates a special master password for you with which you will have access to all of your accounts. The fact that the software does it for you is genius – because it’s a computer placing random letters, numbers and symbols together which have no connection to you whatsoever. I’m saying this because I know that all of us have some sentimental words or numbers for our passwords which are really easy to guess if one knows us well or if one is a professional hacker; well, that could never be a case with a password manager’s password!

But, since the password is random, you could forget it…

And this is one of the issues I find with password managers. The password that is supposed to keep all of our accounts safe and locked away is so random that you can’t really remember it by heart. And I know, many people say that they would probably have their master password written down, but what would happen if you lost the piece of paper you wrote it on? When you’re using something as personal as a password manager, you need to think of all the possible scenarios that could go wrong, and have a plan b for them all.

I know I said cyber-attacks are minimal, but there can be a breach in the future

As I mentioned, so far there are no data breaches when it comes to password managers, but I can’t help to think in that direction. Nothing is 100% safe on the internet, and that’s a common fact; and if there happens to be a data breach with passwords and usernames of millions of people, that can’t end nicely, right?