Bitwarden
Don’t use the same password for everything.
Password Security #
I made a nicely-researched article on Bitwarden, my favorite password manager, and then I deleted it by accident 🤷🏻
Since I don’t have the patience to redo it all over again. I am just going to summarize things like I should have to begin with. Everyone should use a password manager, 80% of data breaches have to do with the human element and not a security vulnerability. Most of the time it’s a weak password or using the same password with slight variations for every website. It only takes one website with weak security (Or a variety of other ways a hacker can get their hands on one password) and then your compromised. A hacker can use software to guess what likely variations are, and if they get more password with a variations their guessing becomes more efficient. Sure some websites are now fighting that with two factor authentication, or even notifying you someone logs in from a different IP but why take the risk? Don’t use simple passwords, and don’t use the same ones.
Password Managers #
You could try writing down your passwords on a notebook, but then you probably want to leave that thing home. And what if you lose it under your pile of clothes on the desk? You could keep your passwords on a note app on your phone but chances are your note app isn’t encrypted. So why not use a password manager? Bitwarden has bank level security. If you trust your money with a bank you can trust your passwords with Bitwarden. Bitwarden is open source and has their software publicly audited frequently. There are other password managers of course, Lastpass and Dashlane come to mind. Lastpass has had data breaches in the past while Bitwarden has not. Their open source model has been holding up pretty well. I won’t rattle on too much about security because there are many places online that go through it much more detailed then I ever could. So I well leave a link with a more in depth review between last pass and Bitwarden as well as Bitwardens page to their security if you want more then a surface level summary.
Bitwarden #
Bitwarden has excellent software for Android, Iphone, Windows, Linux, Mac, and even browser extensions for chrome and Firefox bases browser for auto filling login information. It syncs across all devices and you can send login info securely between other bitwarden users.
With Bitwarden you can randomly generate very strong and complex passwords, user names, and even email aliases depending on your email provider. You can store not only login information but also card information, contact and identities, and even just secure notes that are confidential.
The main paid plans for bitwarden are for companies so it’s free for us individual people to use. You do have the option to pay less then 1 dollar a month for certain perks like security reports and advanced 2FA. For the average use it’s not necessary but it’s nice that they have the option.
If you like the idea of hosting your own passwords for extra control, you can do that too with bitwarden, it’s open source after all and you can install your own instance on a server of your own.
Even if you don’t get bitwarden after all my yammering, I hope you found this article usefull!