Manage Your Passwords

If you've been following along in order, you've seen that I recommend creating a strong and unique password for each and every website, app, and device you use. Not only is this a bit of a manual process, but that also means creating and keeping track of countless long passwords.

Enter the password manager. This is an app that helps you generate, store, and use strong and unique passwords. No more using paper or spreadsheets, or reusing the same password everywhere, or trying to memorize multiple different ones. Instead, you create and memorize a single long, strong, and unique password to protect the whole collection.

The password manager I currently recommend is Bitwarden.

Bitwarden provides apps for your desktop, laptop, phone, and tablet. And they provide a cloud service for securely storing and syncing your passwords between them. With these apps and their syncing service, you'll be able to access the passwords you store in the manager across all of your devices, rather than having to remember them all or reusing the same password everywhere.

The basic service is totally free and should include all most folks needs. Should you need more features later on, you'll find their Premium service is $10 per year for a single account or $40 for families up to 6.

Yes, indeed! But with Bitwarden there is a difference in how those passwords are stored in the cloud, and even within in your computer or mobile devices.

To quote Bitwarden's site, “Bitwarden uses end-to-end encryption for all vault data. Only your email and master password can decrypt your vault. Bitwarden does not have the ability to see any data in your vault.”

You can read more about their process here, and can even get super technical by reading here.

If you're going to use a password manager, I recommend making sure it meets these minimum standards:

• Open source server and apps
• End-to-end encryption
• Recent and regular security audits

Bitwarden currently meets those qualifications. It may be tempting to let your browser or iCloud store your passwords for you, but most just don't meet the same standards.

We're going to set up a Bitwarden account, install the apps, and begin moving important passwords into the vault.