A survey of professionals at the Infosecurity Conference 2018 in London has revealed that 45% of their attendees are guilty of password re-use across multiple accounts. And depending upon the source that you cite, up to 73% of consumers are guilty of the sin of password re-use. If you’re part of these groups, then you need to move out of that neighborhood. And you need to do so as quickly as possible. But how do you do that?

There are really only two methods: memorize unique passwords for each account, or store unique passwords for each account in a secure place. For me, I have over one hundred and fifty accounts. So memorizing complex random passwords for that many accounts is impractical.  And writing these down in an unsecured file or on a piece of paper is truly unacceptable. Does anyone remember the scene in “Wargames” when Matthew Broderick’s character opens the office administrator’s drawer and sees the password list? 

So I am part of the 8% that use a password manager to create and store complex passwords for every account. As of this moment, I don’t remember any of my passwords – except the password to my password safe. Every password I use is unique. And my password manager encrypts every entry ensure its security. If you are looking at password managers, then the two best tools (both of which I’ve used) are LastPass and 1Password. I prefer LastPass because it has tools to help create new passwords on (or before) the date when each account expires. And there is a testing tool that helps you to ensure that you don’t accidentally re-use a password.

Whatever you do, it’s time to get on with the business of properly managing passwords. It is the best “first step” that you can take to secure your identity.