The importance of a password utility

The importance of using a password utility such as the eminent Lastpass has been shown with yet another mass-breach of user data from a large company: this time Adobe, which had a 9.2 gigabyte file of user data including passwords stolen.

Lastpass is a cross-platform password manager that integrates into web browsers. It is available as a Firefox plugin, as an Internet Explorer add-on, as an add-on for Dolphin and Firefox on Android, and certainly most other major browsers.

Every time you have to register for a new site Lastpass can generate a highly secure password that will be used for that site only. I cannot overstate the significance of this. This is extremely important. If anyone is not doing this – if they are using the same password or passwords for multiple sites – it is a huge mistake and they should immediate stop.

Given the fact that Lastpass makes it so freakingly simple to manage passwords there’s no excuse not to be using it. And the $12 annual cost to go “premium” is more than worth it considering the security and convenience it provides.

With Lastpass you will only ever need to remember one password. Ok, not actually one for some people. I still need several for different things. But still.