A Beginner’s Guide To The Password Manager

LastPass Password Management Service

LastPass is probably the most popular and widely recognized password manager solution on the market. It offers robust features and affordable paid options ranging from free to paid premiums with added features.

How does LastPass work?

LastPass is your master password. It works by giving you an account which you log in to through a web browser (or the LastPass desktop client). Once logged in you can search a list of supported sites or even add sites not listed. After you select a site, you provide your login credentials for that site, and LastPass will save the information in an encrypted format.

The next time you visit that site, to login you simply use your LastPass credentials to login instead of having to remember the username and password you added to your LastPass database for that site. It may seem cumbersome at first, but after you’ve added a few sites with different passwords you’ll start to notice the benefits of only having to remember one password thereafter.

Let’s explore some of the features LastPass advertises.

Highly Accessible On Most Browsers & Devices – LastPass has a hearty list of supported sites for which users can save their passwords.

Works On Multiple Devices – Another feature that makes LastPass highly accessible is its ability to work on multiple devices coherently. Users can login and use LastPass on a wide range of browsers such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Safari and more, and can also use the desktop client which has versions available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux. What also makes LastPass exciting is it’s portability which allows it to run on mobile devices such as iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android and Windows Phone, proving it’s available for most if not all users.

Automatic Form Filler – This is less of a security feature and more of a convenience tool. When registering accounts with many sites, you’re often required to fill out fields of personal details such as your name, address, email address and other assorted information. The Automatic Form Filler saves all that information and whenever you encounter a website with a form requesting this information it automatically populates the results, saving you a little time.

LastPass also comes with a wide range of premium features that you may want to explore. They also have an Enterprise edition which works to help streamline employee usage on a small to medium business scale. You can visit LastPass to view a list of LastPass, LastPass Premium and LastPass Enterprise features.

LastPass Security

Generally, LastPass is a good service, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring attention to the recent hacking of LastPass. In 2015, LastPass was left vulnerable when intruders hacked into their servers. Due to military grade encryption deployed by LastPass no actual passwords were compromised. Hackers were only able to retrieve user emails addresses, password hints and other unencrypted data. Nevertheless, it scared users and raised voices from critics.

This was not the first time LastPass was hacked, but just as with this recent attack, no encrypted data was stolen. The scale and nature of the LastPass database makes it a target to attackers who likely view it as a digital treasure trove.

When giants like this are breached, it’s how they handle those breaches that can make or break them, and given their excellent management of the breach, I still give LastPass my approval.