What is a password manager?

A password manager is a fantastic software tool to add to your IT kit to help increase the security of your passwords without the main issue of how to remember and store your details securely.  A password manager is a software tool that allows you to store your passwords securely and easily access them across your devices such as your PC, tablet, laptop and even your mobile.  They also have auto-generation tools to create secure passwords for you.  No more having to think of a random phrase and insert numbers and symbols! A password manager when used across the company can provide warnings if staff are using weak passwords or repeating their passwords thus giving you confidence that your business is not being left vulnerable due to staff weak passwords.

Everyone here at MJD would and probably could not go back to managing their passwords without using a password manager since we implemented them several years ago.  You can even have 2FA setup on your password manager to make it even more secure.  In addition, the autofill features are extremely useful when it recognises a login page on your device and fills the details in for you before you can even think “What email is registered to this account?”  It really is an essential tool to managing and maintaining secure passwords for all your accounts.

Another useful business function of a password manager is when setup within your organisation you can give permission to other users who need to share a login with you securely.  This can also facilitate everyone being able to update the password when it needs to be reset without the need to send the information in an unsecure format such as an email or post it notes.

Here at MJD we recommend the password manager Keeper, which also has a feature called Breachwatch which will scan your records and advise which passwords are at high risk and should be changed to be made more secure.  This can be extremely useful when you initially move to using a password manager to help you work through and change existing passwords to ones generated within your password manager.

If you are interested in getting a password manager please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the team here at MJD.