Are Password Managers Reliable in 2021
🔍InsightsA password manager has a lot of benefits. It would help you in a lot of ways and the doubt which you would have in your mind would be “Can I rely on a password manager”. You can read the below article to get a clear understanding of whether password managers are reliable or not.
Security and Convenience
Safety
Two-factor authentication
Zero-Knowledge Technique
FAQ
Security and Convenience
Password managers offer you both security and convenience. Password Managers remember all your passwords and make it easier for you. It provides you with your password whenever you require to access that particular platform.
This gives you an opportunity to easily create strong and very unique passwords as you need not have to remember all your passwords. You will have to ensure that you entered the details of the log in to your password manager. You will not have to remember all your passwords or memorize them.
You will have to just remember a single password that is the master password to unlock your password manager. Hence password manager ensures security as well as convenience.
Safety
Password Managers are one of the safest ways to keep your passwords safe. Ron Culler who is a senior director of technology and solutions at ADT Cybersecurity said that “Password managers are safe and far safer than not using one”.
Password managers ensure your passwords are safe and it encourages the users to maintain a good security hygiene. This is considered to be a partial reason. Through password managers, you can easily create very unique passwords which are strong and which you don’t have to remember. You can even create long and complex passwords.
If it was during the early days of the internet it would have been easy for an individual to create unique passwords and memorize them but now it is next to impossible.
The password manager company LastPass has said that the average user of its password manager has around 191 passwords which are managed by the company’s password manager application. This makes the tool essential in this era and in the coming years.
Two-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication is one of the best feature available for the password manager applications. This provides double safety for the users. It’s like adding an extra safety wall for your passwords.
The working of the password manager is as follows. You will not have to remember or memorize all your passwords you feed in the application. There will be a master password and you will just have to remember and memorize it. Using this master password, you will be able to access all your other passwords.
So, this master password is the key for all your passwords. You can make it as long and complicated as per your choice. The two-factor verification will provide double security for your password manager.
Examples of two-factor verification refer to an additional pin or some questions which will be asked after you enter your master password or an OTP will be sent to double-check whether the person trying to access to it is legitimate.
Through a two-step verification process the password manager ensures that all your passwords are double safe and kept away from easily getting in hands of cybercriminals or hackers.
Zero-Knowledge Technique
This is the most important technique you need to know about password managers. All the leading password managers using this technique called Zero-Knowledge.
In simple terms, Zero-Knowledge technology means that even though the password manager knows all your passwords and data, the company that manufactures all these wouldn’t have any idea about it.
What makes a password manager safe is its Zero-Knowledge Technology and security model which consists of three layers of defense. The first layer will be the encrypted user data, the second is the manager’s password which is not kept on the system and the security key.
To get access to the information the cybercriminals or hackers will have to get through all these three layers of defense. These defensive layers will greatly reduce the risk that the password manager can be hacked by just a middleman. This was the information provided by Chris Hallenbeck who is the Chief Information Officer of the cybersecurity firm Tanium.
Chris Hallenbeck also said that even if a password manager company gets hacked the customer data will not be compromised because of it.
Mike Kiser who is a senior identity strategist at the security firm SailPoint told that “Any tool has weaknesses”. But he points out that you would be far more likely to fall into a low-tech phishing attack than having your password manager hacked.
Mike Kiser added on saying that he would still use one and the advantages of the password manager far outweigh its security risks.
Password Managers are reliable and the level of reliability would depend on the company you choose. It would also depend on the versions as a premium version would be more reliable than a free version.
FAQ
How reliable are password managers?
Majority of cyber-security specialists agree that password managers are indeed the most secure way to protect your passwords.
What is the best and safest password manager?
LastPass is the best and safest password manager.
Does Apple have a password manager?
Apple has a full-fledged password manager built into iOS and macOS, it stores all of your sensitive information with end-to-end encryption and syncs it across all of your Apple devices.
Conclusion
No Solution can be considered to be perfectly safe all the time but by using a password manager can be the best possible way to protect your passwords.
Must have tools for startups - Recommended by StartupTalky
- Convert Visitors into Leads- SeizeLead
- Manage your business smoothly- Google Workspace
- International Money transfer- XE Money Transfer