To ensure permanent security, you should always use complex and, above all, regularly changed passwords for e-mail accounts or online access. However, many people are overwhelmed with the task of remembering all passwords. A password manager should solve this problem.
What do password managers actually do?
Password managers are used to store and manage various passwords and access data (for example, for e-mail accounts or access to online shops). The storage takes place in an encrypted Databasein order to ensure sufficient security. The databases use different encryption algorithms. A common encryption algorithm is called "Twofish". Many password managers work with this algorithm. In addition, a large number of other programs use a similar or the same database format. The database created by the program is stored on your computer's hard drive. To gain access to the database, you must enter a master password, which is called the master password. So instead of having to memorize umpteen passwords, when using a password manager, it is sufficient to remember a single password. After entering the master password, you gain access to the database with your stored passwords for the individual user accesses or user accounts.
To use the password manager
In order to keep an overview, the entries of the individual user accounts as well as their access data can be sorted according to different categories. For example, it is possible to sort the entries according to e-mail accounts, accesses for online banking and accesses for various online stores and save them in the database. If you want to log in to a customer account of an online store, for example, you first open the database with the saved passwords using the master password. Now copy the password stored there from the database and paste it into the corresponding input field in the online store's access. In many programs, this process can be simplified even further by simply clicking on the corresponding links of the online store. If desired, the corresponding fields for the user name and the password of the online access can even be filled in immediately with the necessary Data be filled in automatically. So in the future, to open access to an online store or other password-protected application, you only need to open the password manager first and select the corresponding access.
When new passwords are needed
Even if you need new passwords for online access, the password manager can help. With the help of a password generator integrated in many programs, new and above all complex and therefore secure passwords can be generated and stored in seconds. Passwords that are too easy to choose and therefore insecure are now a thing of the past. By the way: there are now also special apps for smartphones or even tablets that allow access to password-protected databases from on the road.
Safe and easy life with the password manager
It is often not least a question of convenience whether sufficiently secure passwords are selected and whether they are changed at regular intervals. People often tend to use the same (simple and insecure) password for years. Only once this happens and the password has been lost by a corresponding hacker attack does the user realise how difficult and labour-intensive it is to change all passwords for online access. Of course, the use of a password manager is a bit unfamiliar at the beginning, but becomes second nature relatively quickly. The data stored in the password manager's database is always kept up to date and is stored in encrypted form, whether it is the password manager on the PC, on the Mac computer or even an app on the smartphone or tablet. By the way, the databases can only be retrieved and decrypted with devices that have been previously authorized to access the database. Encrypted data transmission enables a high standard of security both at home and on the move.
