Tech Tip: Personal Cybersecurity- Securing Your Passwords

Managing the security of our personal and professional information is a daily process for many of us. This doesn’t imply that organizing and keeping track of passwords, ids, and other various forms of authentication is a straightforward endeavor, however.  One of the golden rules of password management is never replicating the same password across all of the websites and devices we use. If we follow that rule, how do we efficiently keep track of all those passwords?

This is just a reminder that there are password manager solutions that make consolidating this type of information a bit less daunting (and allows you a painless way to start using and tracking more complicated passwords). Most of these allow you to store additional information besides passwords: Here’s a short list of ‘free’ password managers you can try out:

LastPass: very popular cloud-based password manager. It’s free but there are premium and enterprise-level solutions at a fee that are available.

KeePass: an open source password manager. Available in an installed-version (used on your desktop) and a portable version which you can put on a flash drive (for example) and use on other devices you normally wouldn’t have rights to install anything on. Usable at enterprise level.

PasswordBox: allows sharing passwords with other users; lots of new user/tutorial support; the free version limits you to 25 users.

1U Password Manager: can manage your passwords via your desktop, but employs biometric authentication (fingerprints, gestures, etc.) from your mobile device.  

Hand in hand with protecting your passwords is staying abreast of cybersecurity news and innovations. Here is a short list of some resources to help you read up on events and perspectives regarding how information is being protected (and hacked!) today:

Threat Level: Wired’s section on cybersecurity and cybercrime

DarkReading: Information Week’s coverage on information security news and events

The Guardian UK: The Guardian Newspaper’s section on information security.

Homeland Security Cybersecurity site: The DHS website on cybersecurity news and developments

Homeland Security Newswire: The homeland security industry’s newswire section on cybersecurity. Not run by the DHS.

PCMag’s Security Watch: Lots of news and events covered by PCMag.