The short answer is that it is entirely up to you. Password managers all do essentially the same thing, however, some programs will have more or more useful functionality for you than others. Up-to-date there’s no reason not to use a password manager if you have an iPhone or iPad, which comes with one by default. iCloud Keychain allows you to sync your credentials across several devices. For people who wish to access their iOS passwords from another browser or a Windows PC, Apple provides a Chrome extension.
Most password managers are free for everyone else, with the option to purchase for more functionality. Whether you want to sync your passwords across devices, 1Password is a popular option. It also interacts with Troy Hunt’s Pwned Passwords database, so you can see if (and avoid!) a password that has been previously hacked or exposed in a data breach.
For individuals who just have one device, LastPass is an excellent choice. LastPass altered their membership service in 2021, limiting its free tier to to one device. DashLane provides a free option for a single device as well. Some password managers, such as KeePass, are open source, which means that anybody may see the source code. KeePass isn’t cloud-based, so it only leaves your computer if you transfer it.
That’s not just healthier for the paranoid, but also for those who may be exposed to a wider spectrum of hazards, such as government employees. Because it’s open source, others have forked it and produced their own open source versions, such as KeePassXC, which adds a slew of new capabilities. Despite the fact that most browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, enable you to remember your passwords, some security experts warn that password-stealing software specifically targets browsers in the hopes of collecting passwords and other sensitive information.
Any password manager, like any software, has flaws and weaknesses that might put your data at danger. Your risk is considerably reduced if you maintain your password manager up to date – most browser extensions are automatically updated —simply said, utilizing a password manager is vastly superior to not using one for your overall security. LastPass experienced a problem the other day, a fairly unpleasant one by all accounts, that appears like it might lead to the disclosure of someone’s password (or perhaps passwords) due to a remote code execution vulnerability under certain (undisclosed) situations. This is not a good thing – no one wants an RCE vuln in their program – however, as is often the case with these kind of occurrences, some individuals went insane.
