Over the last few months, the intensity of cyberattacks has increased manifold. Work from home has pushed many people to use their devices to connect to office systems. This has left office infrastructure vulnerable, leaving space for hackers to deploy malware. While this has increased the demand for antivirus suites and software, one area which often remains exposed is passwords. With multiplicity of accounts people tend to keep the same password over all services. Even if they do use a combination, it’s not difficult for hackers to learn about those combinations. Most people reveal their preferences on social media. An idea that people have still not gotten attuned to is paying for password managers.
Password managers allow the flexibility of keeping longer, more complicated passwords and that too, different ones. Now, most such services have apps too. All that these services require is to set up vaults and they can start assigning random passwords via a password generator. And, once you login to a vault, on the computer you will need to do it by keying in a password-phones allow face and fingerprint unlock-the app or browser extension autofills the key information.
Keeper Security
Termed as one of the best password generators, Keeper Security has an easy and appealing user interface which allows users to differentiate between different storage services. Password storage is just one of the features of the app, it also has chat services and can be used across platforms and devices. There is also dark web monitoring and secure file storage up to 1GB. But all this comes at a steep price. Keeper Security does not have a free version; it starts at Rs 2,400 for password manager, and Rs 5,000 for more features.
LastPass
LastPass is another reliable service for password management. The biggest advantage is that it has a free feature, but only allows limited functionality. Operational across platforms, LastPass allows features such as dark web monitoring across all premium versions. Although the free service allows password storage and multi-system logins, the problem is it does not allow one-to-many sharing. The storage space is limited to 1GB. The pricing is not too steep either with Rs 2,300 for premium users and Rs 4,000 for six premium family subscriptions for a year.
DashLane
DashLane is another service with an easy UI. Although it does not offer as many features as LastPass or Keeper Security, its advantage is to pack things in a clean and easy manner. It creates standard distinction and allows users to save payment, notes, IDs and receipts too. The payment and notes are common across platforms, bur receipts and IDs are only a DashLane feature. The free service allows 50 passwords, but is limited to one device. The premium service offers unlimited devices, unlimited passwords, dark web monitoring and VPN too at Rs 3,000.
1Password
1Password has better security than others. It has advanced AES security and great tech support and that is all there is to the app. There is two factor authentication, but it all comes at a hefty cost.
Norton Password Manager
Not really a password app, but Norton comes as a bundled feature with Norton antivirus, which really is a plus as you get VPN, antivirus and added benefits at Rs 1,800 for one device, and Rs 2,500 for 10 devices. The user interface or features, however, is not something to boast about. It will get the job done though.
