Take control of how your
passwords are synched and
where they’re stored BY NICK PEERS
EVERYONE NEEDS a password manager.
You simply can’t get by online these days
relying on a handful of easily guessable
passwords—just take a trip to https://
haveibeenpwned.com to confirm your
trusted passwords of yesteryear have
almost certainly been exposed by now.
The value of a password manager can’t
be overstated, whether it’s generating
unique, random, lengthy passwords that
are almost uncrackable, or storing them
securely in a vault protected by strong
encryption and—if you’re diligent—extra
layers of security. But it’s not necessarily
all good news. Where is your password
vault stored, and who can access it?
Services like LastPass and 1Password
that make it easy to sync and access
passwords between mobile, desktop,
and browser store your encrypted vault
on their own online servers. They argue
their “zero knowledge” model, where they
have no access to your password or the
keys that encrypt your file (which is done
locally on each device), keeps them niceHOST
YOUR OWN
PASSWORD
SERVER
and secure. Great, but that’s an awful lot
of trust you’re placing in their hands—
they’re not immune to attack, and while
LastPass maintains no encrypted vault
data was compromised when its security
was breached in 2015, hackers were still
able to access the files, putting any vaults
protected by weak passwords at risk.
So, how do you ensure your passwords
can’t fall into the wrong hands? You could
go old school and use a single password
manager app on your PC, where the vault
is encrypted and stored locally (perhaps
backed up to a USB key, stored in a
fireproof safe). That’s almost watertight,
but at what cost? Convenience, for one:
Copying passwords by hand on your
phone or using the clipboard to transfer
passwords from app to browser is slow.
The solution lies somewhere between
foolproof security and the convenience of
being able to sync and access passwords
on the go. Over the page, we reveal how to
find the perfect balance, with the help of
©^ one of three password managers.GETTY^ IMAGESmaximumpc.com DEC 2019 MAXIMUMPC 53