92 TECH ADVISOR • MAY 2021GUIDE TO PC SECURITY
LastPass’s
password
generator
auto-creates
upto
12-character
passwords
usingupper-
andlower-
caseletters,
numerals,
andspecial
characters.a websitefor the first time. When you
returntoa site,a smalliconappears
in itslogin fields showing how many
accounts you have stored. Clicking it
opens a drop-down menu revealing
each account so you can select the
appropriate one. You can also select an
auto-login option for each account to
have LastPass sign you in automatically
whenever you visit that site.
All the website accounts are managed
from your ‘vault’. Websites associated
with your passwords are displayed as
tiles, or if you choose, in a list. On each
tile are buttons for accessing your login
details, securely sharing them with
someone else, or deleting them. And to
be honest, those are the only reasons to
visit your vault; you can access individual
accounts as well as LastPass’ main
features right from the plug-in.
Coming up with unique, complex
passwords is one of the biggest
obstacles to practicing good security.
LastPass dramatically eases this burden
with a powerful password generator
that auto-creates up to 12-character
passwords using upper- and lower-case
letters, numerals, and special characters.
There’s also an option to make the
password pronounceable for easier
recall. The password generator icon
appears in the login fields whenever
you’re creating a new account or you canaccess it anytime from your vault or the
browse plug-in.
But passwords are not a set-it-and-
forget-it deal. Changing your passwords
every so often as a precautionary
measure can strengthen your security.
LastPass offers two tools to simplify
this. The first is auto password change.
Instead of manually logging in to an
account and changing the password
manually, LastPass will do it with the click
of a button for 80 popular sites, including
Facebook and Amazon. The second,
Security Challenge, will audit your vault
for weak, old, and duplicate passwords
as well as any for sites known to have
been compromised.
These features alone make LastPass
indispensable, but it protects more
than your passwords. You can create
and securely store form-fill profiles that